//------------------------------//
// Here Comes a Thought 
// Story: My Little Universe II 
// by EquestrianKirin 
//------------------------------//

Prancing through the fields of melting snow, Blue was taking time to better enjoy himself out in the clear skies. With the Harmony Gems and Elements of Harmony running around doing a lot of their own thing during the Rejuvenation Process, this left many of the pets with their own thing to do. In this case, Blue was out with Nora and Lion to have fun with his crow friend. Being cats, Nora and Lion were more waiting to have a bird treat if the crow dropped its guard just low enough (or at least just taking your typical cat nap), but the bird was too smart to fall for that trick. Besides, Blue kept the bird on its toes anyway as Blue kept chasing it around the place in his own game of tag.

It's just one of those things dogs like to do.

With the snow becoming less fluffy and more slushy, Blue's prancing was leaving the dog soaked a little bit, even finding a few spots where the snow was just thin enough to touch the cold wet ground underneath. Blue didn't care though, barking at the crow as it kept just out of reach up in a nearby tree perch. Blue, still the cheery pooch he was even after the years spent with the Harmony Gems, tried his best to get up the tree to reach the crow, but wasn't having that much luck. The crow thought it had one-up'd over the dog. And also, it was probably smart enough to keep out of the way.

"Blue, you almost got him!" called a voice nearby.

It wasn't just animals staying over by the fields today, but instead they were joined nearby by a few visitors: Off-Color Padparadscha, pink Human Lars, and unicorns Starlight Glimmer and Trixie. To put it simply, they were on pet duty today.

"Well this is a nice way to spend the afternoon on, huh?" said a relaxed Lars. "No surprises, no bonus work. Just a couple of pals relaxing by the hillside."

"Yeah, even the Great and Powerful Trixie could use an off day. All of those shows could damper my style if over-used," Trixie agreed. Her mood quickly changed though when she started seeing Blue start coming towards them.

"Blue? Blue, take a few steps back please, don't you do it -" Blue did it: he shook a good long shake, getting a lot of water and bit of dirt onto the others. Trixie especially since she was closest, and now she got her cape and hat covered up in mud.

"Well I was relaxed," Trixie grumbled, using her magic to ring out her hat of the water.

"Yuck. By the way, how're those shows coming?" Starlight asked, her own magic cleaning out her mane and tail, "Did you get any new acts in, or do you need an extra boost from your assistant?"

It'd been too long since Starlight got some magic fun with her showtime friend. Still, even if pals, Trixie still had her pride somewhat and she got her hat back on her head.

"Ha! The Great and Powerful Trixie does not go stale. But it doesn't help to have a friend play along every now and then," Trixie said, hoof around Starlight and giving her a wink. In other words, a magic boost is appreciated. Being reminded of the show did give Trixie an idea.

"Oh, that's right: I got this new act I REALLY wanted to try out. Care to watch?" Trixie asked excitedly.

"A new act? What about? It's not like your teleportation trick is it?" Starlight asked, not willing to go through any other incidents with that.

"NO, no, but it wouldn't hurt to re-work that challenge. I got something special in mind. I call it "The Great and Powerful Trixie's Starlight shimmering galaxy of shimmers!" Yes, I meant to include you in the title," Trixie said.

"Then I guess I'm included in the act," Starlight correctly assumed.

"Of course you are, you got the magic boost, and I got the know-how on showtime and flair. All we need now is an audience," Trixie said. And they all knew exactly who the audience is, and given past experiences they knew the risks involved.

"We get the picture, but we better take a few steps back. Come on, Padparadscha before the fireworks start," suggested Lars. He, Blue, Lion, and Nora moved on back a bit, but Lion had to pick up Padparadscha in order to get her moving back with them in time to give the unicorns some space. Good measure. As for Trixie and Starlight, the two were quietly talking to eachother, getting the main idea of the act to start.
The act seemed simple enough: Starlight began by making her horn glow and a few stars started to appear in the air. All Trixie mainly did was take said stars and galaxy streamers and start hovering them around above the two. A simple case of performance with magic as ammo.

"That's it, that's it. Almost got it ..."

*ROAR*

And just like that the whole act was ruined. Lion's sudden roar out of nowhere made Trixie lose concentration and made the stars basically scatter everywhere, mostly hitting her and Starlight Glimmer, and a few straying over to the others too.

"What the hay was that for?!" exclaimed Trixie, "Don't you know that actors need complete concentration?"

Lion's concentration though was somewhere else, looking away from Trixie and Starlight, and over to the nearby green bushes. Whatever caught Lion's sight would've been in the line of fire if Trixie had continued her own magic show, and the thing was soon spotted by everyone else.
It was fairly small. Well, small comparatively speaking, but still fairly large for what it looked like. The little creature looked like a big chick, two tiny wings along the side, a big head with big eyes and smallish beak. Its body was covered in a smooth layer of fur-like feathers, making it look like a grayish-white cotton ball. The actual size made it only the size of a melon, but that still was big for a baby bird to be.
They didn't know how long it was sitting there, but all it did was chirp a cute little tweet, looking around at them with a kind of innocent look on its face.

"I predict," Padparadscha gasped, "we'll find a little infant creature ... and it's super adorable."

Padparadscha couldn't help herself. She walked over and kneeled down to the baby chick, which didn't seem scared of Padparadscha at all. Even after Padparadscha picked it up and cradled it in her arms like a baby, it simply chirped some more.

"How long was that little thing sitting there?" Trixie asked, confused as the animals were trying to check it out for themselves. Blue sniffed the bird's toes as Lion gave the bird a little lick, which in turn just made the bird chirp.

"It doesn't look like any bird I've ever seen," said Lars, "What kind of bird is a baby THAT big?"

*CAW*

"You just had to ask," Trixie gulped.

They got their answer. The sounds of a much larger bird rested not too far away. If they thought the infant bird was fairly big, then these other birds were simply HUGE, many of them too big to be perched on the branches they were on, with the largest being the size of a Human! It was joined by a few others, each bird of varying size but looking fairly similar to a mix of a Raven and a Vulture: a long-necked bird with a slightly curved beak, black feathers running all along their bodies with a lot scuffled along their wings. There was a few of them up in the tree looking down at them all, about five to seven of them. All sitting there looking down at them like a group of waiting raptors.

"You might wanna take this one, floor's all yours," Trixie muttered, taking a few steps back away from the birds. They all could feel a chill in the air when they saw these creatures, and it wasn't just because it was slightly cold.

"You know what, if we're gonna show off a little, maybe we should do it somewhere that's not close to a bird's nest. Padparadscha, set the chick down please and let's just get going. I think that's theirs anyway," Starlight suggested. Padparadscha looked down to the little birdie in her arms, it chirping a little bit, and looked up to the larger birds.

"....... Oh! Oops, I'm sorry. Here's your baby back," Padparadscha realized, setting the bird comfortably down onto the nearby bush close to what they assume to be the parents. However, that didn't really do anything different for the birds, as they simply continued to stare at them from the trees. It was enough to even make Lion feel uneasy, as the big cat started to back away, pulling both Trixie and Starlight with him so they can get moving to.

"Owowow okay we get the point, you can stop pulling now," Starlight said, yanking her tail out of Lion's mouth. It wasn't like they wanted to stay with these birds anyway.

"Eh, sorry for nearly stealing your baby. We'll just be heading back now," Starlight called. Again this didn't do much of anything, and the now weirded out crowd simply started to go on their way. Maybe they would have better luck back in town anyhow. Padparadscha looked to the baby bird one more time before turning around and joining the rest. She just wished she could bring the cute birdie with her, but they didn't need a flock of ominous birds mad at them for it.

"Don't worry, Padparadscha, that bird's gonna be fine. ... Even with it's creepy parents," said Trixie, the last part kinda slipping out of her muzzle.

"We won't have to deal with anymore of them when we get back to town," Starlight confirmed.


~~~~~~


*CAW**CAW*

Which was actually ... totally wrong.

Birds. LOT. AND LOTS OF BIRDS. That summed up what Starlight Glimmer and company went back to by the time they got to Beach City again, and the whole city was straight up a mess! Those same ominous looking birds that they found on the hills were now all over the city in force, most perched on a rooftop, street lamp, sign, or wherever they could land while others were circling up in the air, and some were along the ground. Starlight's group started to go through the town a bit, numerous birds looking down at them as they went along as if they were being monitored or something.

"We won't have to deal with anymore of them when we get back to town?" questioned Lars.

"Ok, so I'm wrong, don't rub it in," Starlight said grimly. That response actually stirred up one of the birds, making it fly up in a flutter of black feathers as it tried to find another perch above them. It was enough to make them duck as it flew at them, large wings almost clapping together from such a big flap. Speaking of flying, a few more were actually coming in from the hills, slowly gliding and hovering over by them as they too were finding their own spots on the rooftops to land.

"I know this sounds stupid, but we probably should tell the Harmony Gems about this," Lars suggested. Good idea, though they could probably guess they would know they were here already.

"There's so many of them," gulped Padparadscha, feeling kind of scared. Some of these large black birds were still walking around on the ground, so with this chance in mind Blue decided to try his luck. First starting off as a low growl, Blue started charging at the birds in a fit of barking rage, to try and frighten them off. The large birds flew up off of the ground when Blue raced to them, squawking all the while, and for a moment Blue was feeling pretty good ... until they all landed around him that is. The birds, riled up, started squawking and actually pecking at Blue in the head until the dog raced out back to the rest, whimpering and yelping the whole way. It was worth a try, but these birds weren't gonna be scared off like that.

"Blue, don't run at them, you'll get hurt!" Padparadscha gasped.

Too little too late.

"There you guys are! Come over here."

As it turned out they didn't have to go off too far to find where the others were, hearing the call from Bismuth in particular. The Harmony Gems were gathered up over in Dewey Park (probably one of the few places where there's enough elbow room thanks to these birds). Not just them either, but most of the Beach City residence too.

"Everyone else seeing the huge flock too?" asked Lars.

"How could we not? It looks like something right out of some old movie," Emerald said.

"Where'd they all even come from? None of them were hanging around here yesterday," Steven wondered aloud, looking over many of these large animals looking down to them.

"I don't know, but I'll say this: this has that ram Grogar written all over it. Who else would plague this town with ... whatever the hay these are?" Rainbow Dash said. A valid point, given their luck with him lately, but Steven had to protest.

"Maybe, but maybe not. I don't remember Grogar having any birds like these apart of his army," Steven pointed out.

"Why don't we just ask em?" Spinel asked, peeking out from nearby Steven.

"Spinel you can't talk to birds. Unless you're Fluttershy ... Fluttershy, think you can talk to them, and ask em what this is about?" Bismuth asked. She was probably the only one that could do this, but looking at the scary-looking birds Fluttershy was starting to get shivers running through her fur and feathers. One of the birds glanced down to her and it almost looked like its eyes glowed a blackish light, making Fluttershy move back.

"I-I don't know. They look so ... eerie," Fluttershy gulped, shivering a little.

"Okay then, you can just ask them from right here. Confidence or no confidence, you're the only one that can talk to animals, and they're animals. We'll be right here to squash em if they try anything." Bismuth didn't need to explain it any further than that to help Fluttershy out, but that didn't mean it still wasn't troubling. In fact, they all were feeling a strange bit of uneasyness from just knowing the birds were around to begin with.

"Okay ... here I go ..." Fluttershy said, as she started to take a few steps towards the flock. She looked back one more time before she cleared her throat, taking a few breaths (hoof-to-chest inhale, hoof outward exhale), and looking up to the birds.

"E-Excuse me? C-Can I ask one of you something, if you don't mind that is," Fluttershy asked. At first the birds didn't do much of anything other than stare down at her. Eventually though, one of the birds did decide to hover down towards her, landing in front of Fluttershy. This one wasn't as big as some of the others, but still just taller than the pony, enough to look her eye-to-eye at least.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I-I was just wondering what are you all doing here?" Fluttershy asked. Now normally when the animals speak, Fluttershy would be able to understand them fine, but this bird seemed to not utter a single word to her. At least not a word she understood. Sure it might sound like bird squawking, but Fluttershy couldn't make heads or tails of the language. In fact it was freaking her out even more. It also didn't help that the bird was staring in her eyes the whole time, giving her a look that made her heart skip a few beats.

"N-Nevermind, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Fluttershy caved in and went back to the others, breath in short pants as she tried to gather herself.

"Fluttershy, what happened over there?" asked a troubled Starlight.

"I'm sorry, I can't talk to them. They're not normal animals, not even Equestrian animals. I can't understand them, even if I can talk to animals ... I think it tried to put a hex on me," Fluttershy replied, cowering when she heard that same bird squawk at her.

"You mean they're magic birds?" asked Rarity.

"I-I don't know," Fluttershy replied. So much for the animal expert figuring things out.

"Maybe we should ask what they are first," said Twilight, "If Fluttershy can't talk to them, then they're not any normal animal."

"Or maybe we can talk to em. Hang on a sec," said Spinel.

"Spinel, I wouldn't," advised Garnet. However Spinel was already up in front of one of the nearby flocks.

"Hey there, birds, you mind telling us what your deal is here? You're making it plenty crowded here," Spinel asked. Again the birds didn't exactly speak to her, just staring down at her again. So ...

"HELLO?!"

Bad move on her part. The shrieking she made caused much of the flocks to freak out, flying and hovering around in a mess of feathers. Steven and Connie quickly grabbed her and pulled her away before any of the birds could rush down and get her, but it took a while for this swarm of birds to calm down again.

"Oops," said a shuttering Spinel.

"You okay, Spinel?" Steven asked. Spinel simply nodded to him as they all looked back at the huge flock. The birds found a perch again and were simply looking down to the residence some more.

"Okay, so talking to them is out of the question, and maybe we shouldn't get them angry either," concluded Steven.

"So what do we do with em?" asked Applejack.

"I mean ... they're not doing anything. Should we make them leave if they're not causing any problems? Before you point anything you, you just freaked them out Spinel, they didn't plan to jump like that so that doesn't count," shrugged Steven.

"What about when they attacked Blue? They looked like they knew what they were doing then," Lars said, the Gem dog keeping himself hidden so the birds won't jump him again.

"Well that depends: did Blue rush at them first?" Garnet asked.

"Ehh ... well, yeah?"

"Then they were just defending themselves that's all."

"So ... what are we gonna do? Are we going to just leave them alone, or are we gonna try anything?" Connie asked, feeling uneasy with the birds herself. Garnet adjusted her visors.

"There's really no point in chasing them off if they're not giving us a reason to. We'll look into what they are and what they're about, but for now let's just leave them be. They could end up leaving on their own," Garnet concluded. No sense wasting energy on a huge bunch of birds anyhow.

"So just ignore them is what you're saying?" asked Lars.

"Pretty much," Garnet replied. It seemed simple enough.

"I am NOT working with all those birds hanging out in the Pizza shop," said Jenny.

"Oh yes you are young lady. No bird plague is going to keep you from your job," Kofi said sternly.

"But daddy!"

"Well that goes for you two, boys. Those fries and Tater Tots aren't gonna sell themselves," said Mr. Fryman.

"And miss out on this strangeness? This is an ultimate study for -"

"Ronaldo, can't you think about something besides your blog?" Peedee asked.

"Blog? I was gonna say for my class," Ronaldo said.

"... Oh yeah. You're a teacher now," Peedee said, a little embarrassed. They still needed to get used to the fact that Ronaldo was more than just some blogger now. This got Flint thinking a little bit.

"Actually ... Ronaldo, you mind doing some studying with me? You're experienced in this sort of thing more than other people in town, and I could use a second opinion," Flint offered.

"Really?! I-I mean, of course, I'd be honored," Ronaldo said, a little too enthusiastic about being joined up officially by a Harmony Gem.

They were gonna have to grin and bare it. Even if some of the animals were a bit more than worried of ending up as the bird's snack. The residence started to go off back to their daily business, though the birds were actually beginning to spread out a little bit more as the residence were doing so, soaring along the sky in a slow way as if they were just floating in the air. Seemed at least some of these birds were picking favorites. Still a good chunk of them stayed around the park, looking to the Harmony Gems.

The more they watched them, the more uneasy it felt. ...


~~~~~~


So everyone from there tried to get back to their daily business, even though now that the town was plagued by these giant black birds. All of Beach City seemed to be under complete monitor thanks to these large birds, all of them perching up and watching the residence below. It did seem strange, if not troubling for everyone in town, because wherever they went, the birds seemed to want to follow them. The only animals the birds didn't bother with were the cats (for obvious reasons), but even then it wasn't enough to get them all to go away. Even with the birds looming over their heads however, they still had other things to do.

"Who's ready for Dogcopter 6: Til Death Do Us Bark: I Now Pronounce You Man and Woof!"

Like catching the latest Dogcopter movie. It was a good way to ignore the plague.

"Dogcopter six, huh? I didn't know a robot dog got so many sequels," said a admittedly impressed Spinel as she checked out the poster for the movie by the theater. The theater had a bit of a line-up for the movie, so Spinel, Steven, Connie, Pinkie and Rarity.

"I know, it's amazing, and I don't care who says what it's still going strong. The director's promised this time it'll keep true to it's source material," Connie explained, "According to the trailer, Dogcopter and Drew the Dog are going to get -"

"CONNIE, no spoilers! I've suffered avoiding the trailer for this as it is," Steven quickly said, who wanted to keep his viewing experience fresh for the movie for once.

"Sorry, force of habit since I've joined the fan wiki," Connie admitted.

"Don't worry, Connie, I'm sure whatever the trailer showed won't ruin the entire movie ... but please, still no spoilers," Rarity suggested, basically in the same boat as Steven in terms of viewing. Nothing ruins an experience more than already knowing what happens before it starts unless you're Garnet. The group soon got their way up to the ticket counter.

"Five tickets for Dogcopter 6 in 3D please," said Rarity, getting out the money for the ticket lady. As Pinkie and Rarity were working that out, the other three couldn't help but feel watched thanks to all of the birds perched nearby, but it wasn't the same sort of feeling one would've gotten while being watched. No, the feeling they were getting was more focused on something else.

"Is it still there?" asked a whispering Connie.

"I think so, just ignore it," replied Steven.

Sure enough they looked back to the flock of birds. There wasn't as many of them as there was before back in the park, but still a decent-sized flock remained perched nearby. One in particular stood out from this group of birds though, looking just slightly bigger with a color of red and blue in its eyes. It didn't do anything to them, just look at them, but it still left them both uncomfortable all the same.

"Yeah. Ok," Connie replied.

"You three coming in? Our favorite seats are ready, and I'm down for some Dogcopter catch-up," said Pinkie Pie, showing the three the tickets they just got.

"Oh, yeah we're coming. Just checking in on our feathered friends up there, nothing to worry about," Steven said, thumb aimed at the birds nearby. Rarity and Pinkie glanced over to the birds themselves, but they decided not to push it. Part of the idea was to wait this out until the others could come up with a solution anyway. The ponies took a look to one another before they went in to join their friends in the theater.

"Those birds are really ominous, like a bunch of ghosts," said Pinkie while going in. Rarity would protest if that wasn't the vibe she was getting from the few there. Maybe the movie will help gt their mind off those ugly creatures.

.......

"Dogcopter, we got a visual on the blue car, it's heading pass T-bone bridge. Fetch, boy!"

"Come on, Dogcopter, get him," said Steven, on the edge of her seat along with her friends as they were deep into the movie. The theater was really waiting to see what would happen next, Connie trying to avoid dropping her non-butter popcorn. The movie screen showed Dogcopter with Drew the Dog, the superhero canine in the middle of a high-speed chase, following in hot pursuit with the blue car in front of them.

"Can I have some of that popcorn?" asked Pinkie. Connie gave some over to her, but the whole group got a bit of a jump as the cars zoomed right at the screen. Spinel and Pinkie especially were jumpy.

"WOW, this 3D glasses stuff feels so real, it's like I'm really being chased by a car," Spinel said, just to duck down and cover her head in wraps of her arms when the cars rushed by the screen again.

"3D's the best for action movies," Steven replied.

"SSHH, they're reaching the bridge," Connie shushed.

And indeed they were reaching the T-Bone bridge. Dogcopter at this point was up on top of the car, Drew the Dog taking the wheel as the cyber-dog was ready to jump at any moment. But just before he could, something else caught his eye that suddenly made him stop cold. A mail truck, moving at top speed, right beside the blue car.

"No no no, don't fall for that again Dogcopter," gulped Pinkie pie, her and Spinel hugging eachother in worry as they watched the scene play out. Dogcopter on-screen looked torn between the blue car and the mail truck, eyes darting back and forth as a robotic arm from his back wiped away some sweat off his head.

"I know you're eager to chase the mail truck, Dogcopter. But the mail truck is a decoy. Good boys chase the blue car. Be a good boy, Dogcopter," Drew the Dog said.

That voice was just the motivation Dogcopter needed, and he locked onto his target: the blue car. A quick leap off of the first car, and Dogcopter lived up to his name, propellers sprouting from his back and he chopper'd right over to the blue car. Getting his robot arms out, he smashed open the trunk and got out the prize: a small box ... and a time bomb?!

"Oh no, it's a trap!" gasped Spinel, gtting a few shushes from the others watching (though how could she not yelp at sight of it?). As Dogcopter was trying to process this turn of events, and the audience preparing for the worst as something began to hone in on Dogcopter and the screen from the background. It was charging in close, and FAST, as if aiming right for the audience. As this was going on, Pinkie tried to get some more popcorn, but her jittrery hoof made some spill onto Connie.

"Oops, sorry, nervous-jitters," Pinkie said.

"I got it, thanks," Connie replied. But as she tried to get some popcorn off of her lap, and looked back to the screen, the figure in the back began to move in closer, and closer, and closer with ... wings spread?

"Wings? Dogcopter never had any evil bird henchmen," Connie thought. It was an odd direction to turn the story in. However, there was one teeny tiny detail that she forgot to count on, as her hand reached to readjust her 3D glasses. Only one small problem ...

"Wait ... I'm not wearing my 3D glasses," Connie realized in surprise. Why was this a surprise? When Connie looked back up towards the screen, that same thing was starting to jump VERY FAR OUT of the screen now. Or rather, hovering off of the top of the movie screen and over the crowd.

"Nice work, DC! Now get the bomb off the bridge! We're almost out of time!" Drew shouted.

The bird was REAL! And diving right at her!

*CAW!**CAW!*

*BOOOM!*

"AAHH!" Connie shut her eyes and covered her face, her popcorn flying in the air, from what she thought was gonna be a nasty peck or scratch. It turned out the bird flew up at the last second, and disappeared over in the dark corner of the theater just as a huge explosion on-screen made the entire room jump. At least that's what it looked like to Connie. As she got the popcorn off of her (and the popcorn container off her head), she checked back to the seats behind them only to find no bird anywhere ...

"DOGCOPTER! NO!" Drew screamed, screech-halting the car as he rushed out to Dogcopter, who at this point was laying unconscious on the ground. The bomb had exploded and gone, and the other box was safely on the bridge with them, but Dogcopter was not moving. The others were crossing fingers and hooves, hoping Dogcopter would make it out of this alright.

"Please Dogcopter," said Drew the Dog, "I don't want to lose you ..."

"Me neither Drew," Spinel said.

"You need me to get more popcorn, dear?" Rarity quietly asked. Connie needed to regather her nerves.

"N-No. No I'm good ... It's really good at 3D," Connie said.

The whole point was to ignore the birds, not bring them up. So she got her 3D glasses back on, and continued watching the movie with the others. Speaking of which, Dogcopter turned out to be alive, just enough, and his robotic arms slowly got over to the box, and held in a particular way as he then opened it.

"Is it ... what I think it is?" Drew asked.

And indeed it was. A ring, shaped like a dog bone. It was such a twist from what just happened, getting a few gasps out of the crowd nearby.

Too bad Connie was too shaken up to focus.


~~~~~~


"Thanks for coming in, have a nice day," said Sadie.

About closing time at the Big Donut, and the birds still hadn't gone away. Sadie and Lars just got their work done for the day (Bill Dewey went home early), but the birds themselves hadn't gone away. Some were still perched up on top of the Big Donut, looking down at the two as they've been doing all day.

"Geesh, don't those birds have anything better to do? They've been hovering over the shop all day. It's giving me the creeps," Lars asked, looking up to them. 

"You're feeling it to, huh? Well, here, let's get our minds off it with a little snack for the road," Sadie suggested, holding out a donut bag.

"You got donuts?"

"Well yeah ... I just thought we can have a bite to eat on the way back, you know? That okay?" Sadie asked. A long time ago Lars would've declined the offer, but this time Lars smiled and opened up the bag.

"Sure. A toast for a day off," Lars said, holding his donut as if it were a water glass. Sadie chuckled and did the same thing and with a "clink", they were just about to enjoy a bite when one of the birds decided to get some takeout.
Sadie suddenly felt a yank off of her hand, and a black blur rushed down and snatched her donut up with a quick bite of the beak. The bird was smaller, but moved very quick, and Sadie would've gotten a better grip if not for the black bird's wings whacking her head as it flew back up.

"Hey! That's not yours!" Sadie shouted. But the big bird just perched back up onto the rooftop, holding the donut like a parrot would to take a few bites before another one tried its luck with it, basically bringing the two to another skirmish. Lars just moments later broke his donut in half.

"Here, don't sweat it. You can have half of mine," Lars said, blushing a little but smiling.

"Oh, you don't have to Lars, it's fine," Sadie said.

"Just take it," Lars smirked, "If you don't, I'll have to eat an entire donut all by myself."

"Okay, okay you sold me," Sadie chuckled, taking the donut.

*CAW!*

And there they go again, this time it was big a bigger bird, and basically bullied Lars and Sadie into giving up their pieces by loud squawks and harsh wingbeats. At least the first one was quick and painless, this one was a straight up bully.

"Stupid birds, go get your own food!" Lars shouted. Of course the birds weren't gonna listen to them, and they scuffled on who was gonna get the food this time right off of their rooftop. All Sadie and Lars could do was sigh as they watched the donut carryout get torn to pieces. Guess they'll just have to wait until they got home to actually get a bite to eat.

"Wait, don't close yet!"

Spinel, Twilight, and Starlight. It was a bit late, and Spinel really wanted to get her fix of donuts before it would close for the day, almost making a dive for the in zone just to make it to the front door.

"Oh, hi guys. Sorry, but we've just closed up for the night," Sadie said.

"NO, you can't have. Can't I have just one donut before you all quit on me? This is a donut shop, there's gotta be ONE left in there," Spinel said, looking inside the donut shop for SOMETHING left. Sadie was really starting to feel a sense of Deja Vu just from all of that.

"So are you two coming to try and get some too, or are you just coming by?" Lars asked Twilight and Starlight.

"Yeah we're just coming by. In fact we're on our way back to the Beach House before Spinel wanted her sugar fix before you closed up," Twilight explained, looking to the now troubled Spinel.

"Back to the - wait, did you guys figure out how to handle, well, you know what?" Sadie asked, pointing to the birds on the rooftop, which by this point was joined by a few more.

"I have no idea, but Flint and Ronaldo are working on it ... Flint's a brave man," Starlight admitted. Spinel pulled herself away from the window by her own hand, showing her sad, sad face.

"Can't I at least have leftovers? I'll take the donut holes," Spinel asked meekly.

"Actually you're lucky there's even any left," Lars groaned, "Those dumb birds keep stealing takeouts everytime someone steps out with a donut. Whatever the others are going to do, they better do it soon before we're squawked out of business."

The three looked up to the birds, them looking down at them while some were still fighting over what donut was even left at this point, to the point when feathers were falling off of them and onto the group.

"Sorry, but you two are just gonna have to bare it. Okay, so they've swiped some donuts, that's not enough to give me the right to chase them away," Twilight explained, trying not to look at em for too long. Especially when one of them looked like it would end up in a nuthouse with how scuffled-up it looked, making Twilight cringe a little bit.

"Why not?" Lars asked.

"Eh, I dunno Twilight. You really think they're not doing this on purpose?" Starlight inquired, "Why else would they keep taking from just one donut shop?"

"Because they're hungry? Look, I already promised Garnet I wouldn't try anything with my magic already, so ... yeah, at least wait until we learn what these things are," Twilight said. It wasn't like she didn't want to get rid of these birds, just looking at them was enough to give her a unsettling vibe, but attacking them purely on looks wasn't gonna make it any better.

"Well, alright. It's auto-locked anyway for the night, so they won't steal anymore while we're away. Good luck guys," Sadie said. Twilight nodded and began to head back on her way towards the Beach House. Sadie and Lars didn't feel very good about that though, and felt even less when the birds seemed to not want to leave. It seemed fair to try and leave them alone, but then again, Starlight and Spinel were getting the same idea ...

"Don't worry. We'll get rid of them for you," decided Spinel.

"You two will?" asked Lars.

"It won't be long. Wait here," Starlight said. Then she walked over and confronted the flock sitting on the rooftop. Only one of the birds was already flying away, but that wasn't enough to get rid of the majority of the birds stuck up there. Spinel simply stared up at them for a moment before she quickly shook her head, as if something just landed on her face to distract her or something. Starlight though didn't hesitate, and her horn began to glow.

"Okay, I have no idea if you can understand me or not, but you all need to fly out of here. You're scaring away the customers," Starlight warned. The birds didn't budge an inch, and basically ignored her.

"You heard her! Go away!" added Spinel. All that response got was a few loud squawks and that was it. Well, time to get the fireworks started.

"Everypony stand back. I got this," Starlight said.

Aiming her horn up towards the flock, Starlight began to make a few warning shots at the flock. They weren't anything too crazy, just a few magic shots to scare the birds away, and while it did make the birds flutter away from the shots it wasn't enough to actually make them leave. One shot to the left, a few to the right, some even bouncing off of the building for good measure, but none of those were enough to do the job.

"Okay. Warning shots aren't scary enough for you? How about this?" Starlight then uppen'd the magic, and did a sweeping beam just above the flock. This one made many of the birds huddle up on the rooftop, keeping just out of range from the bean of magic, but again it didn't make them fly away. These birds were a bit stubborn, and it just got them squawking at them again.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Lars asked, not sure if she was helping or making things worse.

"I'm working on it, just let me think without destroying the place," Starlight said.

However, all of that eerie squawking and shrieking was making at least one of them a little bit too riled up ...

"SHUT UP, YOU BIRD-BRAINS!" shouted Spinel, reaching a little breaking point. Her fist inflated to the size of a wrecking ball, and rallying up her swing, she slammed her giant fist right into the wall of the building, so hard it made the building crack!
Now THAT got the birds to take flight off of the rooftop, freaking them out and flapping like crazy, as if they were trying to fly for the first time they were so hectic. Spinel, Starlight, Sadie, and Lars all moved back from the flock of now angry birds, all of them squawking and shrieking even more than before, but something else was going on as they all flew the way that they did.
Almost like a trigger, the bird flock started to become covered in a sort of darkish haze or shadow, giving those observing it a deep sense of ... sadness? Regret? Probably regret, since the flock was now acting like an angry swarm of bees. And Spinel had just disturbed their hive.

Immediately, worried, Starlight got them all covered in a forcefield of magic, just as the flock rushed right down at them, slamming into the barrier with all of their strength, beaks and claws scratching and cutting into the forcefield.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this was a mistake," Spinel managed to say in the mayhem.

Just before the forcefield cracked open.

.......

The Beach House was getting a bit of a crowd now. From Equestria there was Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, whereas for the Gem side there was Garnet, Flint, Jasper, and Steven. Peridot and Pearl were among them too, but they weren't exactly what they would call "involved": Pearl huddled up in a blanket over in the corner as Peridot kept her position in the bathroom. Everyone else was waiting for the whole group to show up, though anyone could see that they were a little bit on edge. Flint was pacing back and forth, Jasper tried to find how many tiles on the ceiling she could count, Fluttershy tried keeping herself busy with one of Steven's books along with Twilight, things like that. No matter what they did, they all knew those birds were still hanging out just outside of the Beach House door, and along with that the Temple itself.
They finally got something else to focus on though when they heard the Beach Door open.

"Starlight, Spinel, nice of you -" Garnet stopped when she saw how beat up Spinel and Starlight looked. Spinel had a few scratches on her body, a ponytail on her head undone so it sprawled over her face, as Starlight's mane looked choppy almost with a few bruises and scratches along her own fur.

"Sorry we're late," groaned Starlight. Spinel for one just fell down onto the floor as Starlight just moved her way to the couch, tossing herself onto it (and Garnet's lap).

"What happened to you two?" Steven asked. Spinel joined Starlight on the couch, sitting down quietly to have Garnet just come up and say it.

"You two tried to get rid of the birds on your own, when you both passed the Big Donut," Garnet correctly guessed.

"We were just trying to help. ..." Spinel meekly and gravely said.

"BUT Lars and Sadie got out alright so, it's not completely terrible," Starlight said ... though not too enthusiastic. They could only wonder though if they did get out alright, or how bad the birds were off when they got fighting them. Garnet looked over to Spinel.

"I know you're both just trying to help Sadie and Lars, and it was noble of you. And right now we all need to help solve this problem," Garnet said.

"Right, so did any of you get any leads or something?" asked Jasper, "All these ... things. UGH, I can't even train right now because of those stupid animals crowding me!"

"Jasper, don't be rude," insisted Fluttershy. Even if she couldn't understand them, she knew what not to say to them.

"But seriously, did anyone figure anything out or what?" asked Rainbow Dash. It was then that Flint actually addressed everyone.

"Okay, so it took all day with me and Ronaldo looking over these creatures," Flint explained, "and ... I really didn't get much."

"You spent all day with Ronaldo and got nothing?" 

Flint sighed roughly.

"I'm not thrilled about it either, believe me. I was hoping to find out more, but the most that we've seen was that these birds are highly observant, and seem to pick their targets. That's all I was seeing, but we're trying to figure out more with them," Flint explained. Not the best answer ever, but what could they even do?

"Ok, I don't know about you guys, but those birds gotta hit the road. If they're gonna attack the town, they're gonna have to go through us first," Rainbow said.

"Nuh-uh, Rainbow, I couldn't get rid of them, what makes you think you could?"

"Look at you! They already made mincemeat out of you and Spinel," the pegasus pointed out.

"Only because I tried chasing them away! Look it doesn't matter, it's been a long day, I'm just gonna get going," Starlight concluded, ready to walk out the door.

"Okay then, while you're gonna do that, I'm gonna check on Bismuth at the forge," Jasper decided.

"Don't tell me she's freaking out over this too," Applejack said.

"It's one of those things where she says she's fine, but she's clearly not fine. Just at the forge and she won't stop making weapons, shields, and basically everything else with a forge. By the way, she wanted to give this to you," Jasper said, tossing something over to Fluttershy. The object wasn't even a weapon, but looked more like a metallic "rubber duck".

"Funny thing: Rarity's like that too. I tried talking to her back at her boutique, but she kept saying she's too busy with sewing," Fluttershy said.

"Sounds like more distractions to me," said Flint.

"Let's get some sleep," Garnet decided, "we'll figure out more tomorrow. Flint, I want to talk to you."

"Huh? Umm, okay, sure," Flint said. A bit out of nowhere but couldn't hurt. As Flint and Garnet were heading over to the backroom, Garnet looked over to the rest.

"Steven. You should pass out the blankets and pillows to everyone. They're in your stairs drawer," Garnet suggested, just before walking into Flint's room with him.

"But there's nothing in there except for a few old board games," Steven said, though this was mostly to himself. At least, he thought there was none in there until Spinel checked for herself. The second she opened that door was like finding a party bomb by Pinkie Pie, a big clump of pillows and a few blankets shot out from the place and sprawled out onto the couch. Amongst the bed material also came a small note, which only had two words on it:

Slumber Party.

"Garnet. Always thinking," Steven said with a smirk.


~~~~~~


The next day, morning came late. The sun was slow to come up (at least that's what it felt like), and as the rays of sunshine were going over the town by the seaside, there wasn't that many people that were up and ready for the day (take a wild guess why). Well, even if Beach City was sleeping in a little, there still were a few that took the morning by the horns.

Lapis.

"Good morning, world. Great to see you," Lapis said. Unlike practically everyone else living here, Lapis Lazuli was feeling pretty good that morning. A bit chilly, but the weather and clear sky was just right for Lapis to take on a morning flight. Her water wings were spread open, a slight shimmer in the sunlight as she stood up on top of Brooding Hill. No better spot in town where she can get a good send off. The blue Gem gave a good stretch, welcoming the day with open arms, before she leaned forward with wings spread wide, getting her to start soaring in no time at all.
At first Lapis was having fun with flying round the clouds, doing a number of turns and spins just for the heck of it, but mainly her reason for flying was just to chill out. Just gliding along always was relaxing for Lapis, not needing to focus too much on flapping her wings as she soared along, almost like she didn't have any gravity pulling her down. She even flew upside down for a little bit, as if she was laying on a cloud. Flying along the way that she was, she didn't take the time to look down to the ground until -

*CAW!**CAW!*

"Huh? What's that?" Lapis wondered. She never heard a call like that before. Curious she turned herself around, and then did she get a better look at Beach City and it's current bird pandemic.

"That's Strange. That's a lot of birds down there. And none of them look like they belong here either. ... when'd Beach City get so many?" Lapis thought. Lapis kept a visual as she continued to fly through town, finding so many of these birds not giving much legroom on any perch for her to rest. Seemed that wherever she flew, be it over by Funland or through Dewey Park, or just by the boardwalk, the birds were pretty much everywhere. She was right about them being foreign to this part of the world, as she did NOT remember seeing anything similar to these birds through the years she lived here. Speaking of the birds, they didn't really bother with her as she flew through town. Some did have to move out of the way to give her some room to fly, but that was about it for the most part. For now, anyway. Another thing too, Lapis didn't see anyone out there aside from the flying animals, so that made this scene feel just that much more ominous.

"Yep, definitely not normal birds. I better tell the others about this ... well, if they don't know about it already," Lapis thought, a few extra wing beats to pick up speed.

Only to suddenly stop once she caught sight of the Beach House.

"They definitely know," Lapis gulped. And indeed she was right (or should be anyway), because when she saw it now it was almost littered with those birds! Some were circling around the house as others just sat on the rooftops. It was so crowded up there that the birds were lucky to have a foothold left on the roof, some even forced to be pushed off when one wanted a seat. No doubt about it though, the house was practically invaded.

Lapis was not having it.

"Hey! Off the house!" Lapis shouted, flying in towards them. The birds looked over to the oncoming Gem, and actually had to scatter a lot so they wouldn't get caught in the landing. Lapis took her landing right at the front door, the birds flying up out of reach from her, but still refusing to go too far as they squawked and shrieked at her. A pair of gutsy birds even started pecking at her.

"Ow! OW, hey, quit it! Okay, you're asking for it," Lapis warned. All it took was a quick opening of her water wings, and a quick slap, to get the birds to go away. That gave Lapis enough time to go right into the house and slamming the door behind her, the birds unable to reach her by then. Lapis had to hold the door steady as the birds tried busting their way in, but as quickly as it started they calmed down and went back to roosting. Lapis gave a quick sigh.

"Well I'm home. Ok guys, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you know about the birds outside?" Lapis asked after catching her breath ... only to find barely anyone there. In fact the only one there was Spinel, her on the couch playing with her fingers and trying not to give into the birds' constant squawking.

"Guys? ... Spinel, where is everybody?" Lapis asked, looking around.

"Hi Lapi," said Spinel, grumpy, "They went out to the Sky Arena. Thataway," Spinel said, her hand stretching and pointing right over to the Warp Pad. They all then heard the birds outside, which made Spinel cover her ears.

"It doesn't look like things had been easy."

"I'm trying to try this "sleep" thing, but those birds never shut up," Spinel whimpered. That response just got the birds squawking outside again, making Lapis turn as Spinel shuttered.

"Did they come back home yet? They need to know about these birds. They're all over Beach City now, and I think they're trying to eat the Big Donut. And by that I mean the actual donut," Lapis explained.

"Of course they -" suddenly a thought struck her, "wait a minute bob. You don't know? ... WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Spinel exclaimed in shock, grabbing the blue Gem by the shoulders and getting right in her face. Lapis (only slightly freaked out) got Spinel to let go of her.

"With ... Jamie?"

"Who?" Spinel asked. Lapis started going through her pockets.

"Jamie. He and I have been a thing for a good few years, and he invited me out with him to visit his cabin over the weekend. Here, look." to prove she wasn't making any of this up, Lapis showed Spinel one of the pictures (okay a couple of them) on her trip with Jamie. One showed her showing up at the front door of the cabin with the guy, the second one showed Lapis and Jamie basically hanging out with Lapis of course wearing Jamie's mailman hat. It was a habit for them at this point. The third one though looked more like they were re-enacting a part of a play with Jamie dressed as a squire and Lapis a princess ... but it was still worth mentioning.

"Huh. Look at that," Spinel said. She thought Steven and Connie were the only match going on. For a brief moment it was actually calming down, until one of the birds suddenly jammed its head into Steven's bedroom window. Spinel yelped, throwing the pictures up in the air before covering herself up, as Lapis grabbed each picture in the air.

"Make the mean buzzy things go away before I lose my mind," Spinel whimpered ... looking ready to kill somebody. Lapis kept her distance, but as Spinel was freaking out, she looked out the same window and it seemed that this reaction only agitated the bird even more.

"How long was she going through with this? ... Spinel, if you want, maybe -"

"You'll cover for me?! Thanks Lapis, you're the absolute bestest ever, I'll put a good work to the others, see ya!"

"W-Wait, that isn't what I meant!"

Too late, Spinel already took a bolt for it, and onto the Warp Pad she went. Lapis was kinda left standing there before she could do anything else, but seeing Spinel like that only made her wonder just how bad those birds really were. Speaking of which, after Spinel left, the bird at the window brought its attention to Lapis, but rather than say anything to her it simply stared at her for a while.

*scratch**scratch* "AAAHHH!"

"Peridot!" Lapis gasped.

Immediately Lapis raced right towards the bathroom and without hesitating, she swung the door wide open. Not even noticing until after that Peridot locked Steven's door, and she just flat out broke it in a single swing. That she can fix later, she had Gems to get. Looking into the bathroom she quickly saw that the bathroom had a visitor trying to break into the bathroom. Peridot was keeping herself as far away as possible from the smaller window near the door, s a large vulture head was trying to break its way inside through clawing with its talons.

"CLOSE THE DOOR, YOU CLOD!" Peridot screeched, plunger in hand to break her at any second. Lapis, staring at the weapon, quickly closed the door behind her, as the vulture head caw'd right at her face. As a natural reflex, Lapis actually slapped the bird square in the face. And HARD. It was enough to make the bird move back away. Quietly.

"Is everything okay in here?"

"NO, those ... THINGS keep trying to get in here! They're gonna shatter me!" Peridot said in panic, just to hear the birds getting agitated again outside. The Peridot Lapis knew wouldn't get this scared over a few birds. But then again, this wasn't the one she grew used to yet, and the bird giving another squawk proved it and made Peridot almost scramble back to the back wall, muttering "don't let it get me" over and over again.

Turned out she wasn't alone in here, as Lapis saw someone whimpering in the bathtub. Hidden over in the corner, a stream of tears still going down into the bathtub drain, Pearl was keeping herself as isolated as she possibly could inside the room.

"I lost her ... I-I'm her Pearl. I was supposed to protect her from everything," Pearl muttered, trying in vain to wipe away some tears on her face.

"Pearl, don't worry, everything's fine. Connie's still alive, you didn't lose anyone," Lapis said. Pearl looked over to Lapis with so much water in her eyes, before she suddenly wailed and cried again.

"I try so hard for her!" she cried, "I was made to serve her, to protect her, to keep her safe! I'M A DISGRACE TO ALL PEARLS, and now I lost everything! My ... my ..."

"Your Connie?"

"... MY CONNIE!!!" suddenly Pearl lunged over to Lapis Lazuli, wailing and crying herself ridiculous. Lapis held Pearl to her to try and calm her down, but this did a bit more than just give Pearl some small bit of comfort and possibly scare Peridot crazy again judging by the face. No that other response was just outside the bathroom window.
The birds were getting riled up again just outside, now at least several birds trying to get their way inside like a swarm of hungry piranha.

"Lazuli, how do you get it to stop? it's gonna make them mad again," Peridot asked frantically, hiding behind Lapis.

"Again? You mean they tried more than once?"

"I don't have to analyze the entire issue just make it STOP before they break in! The last ten point seven times they almost got me! Just make it stop, umm ... your clarity," Peridot muttered in panic, even giving Lapis the diamond insignia for the sign of respect, just to yelp and hide when they heard a loud hit by the window. Lapis looked over to the window, not even able to see outside except for the bird heads filling in every square space of it. She looked back and forth between the Gems and the birds and ...

"We gotta go. Peridot, get out of the bath tub and follow me. Here Pearl, let me help you up," Lapis said. Pearl, still holding onto her, was then lifted off of the ground, holding her in a cradle as Pearl gripped her in a arm/leg hug.

"Waitwaitwait, we're just leaving? NOW? I can't leave, I got so much to do in here!" Peridot said.

"You want those birds to get you or not?" Lapis asked.

"Point royally made. Coming," Peridot replied. Peridot almost slipped on Pearl's tears just to keep up with walking Lapis Lazuli, Pearl leaving a small stream of tears all along the way. Lapis, Peridot, and Pearl moved straight over to the Warp Pad, the birds starting to go into more of an uproar. The trio of Gems went right over to the Warp Pad, and turned around just to see the birds finally breaking through the front door.

"I give you this tribute as a sacrifice, thank you!" Peridot said, trying to push Pearl out to them.

"Peridot!"

"What?! she's expendable!"

The birds broke through and rushed towards them.

"GO GO GO GO!" Peridot screamed. Lapis got the Warp Pad working just in time, and all the birds got to grab was just air ... and the back wall as they slammed into it.

And then everything was quiet, and still.

.......

That was far too close, and now miles away from the Temple, Lapis, Peridot, and Pearl got themselves caught up to the rest of the Harmony Gems. Good timing too, because the Sky Arena itself was getting a bit of a crowd with many of the ponies and Gems present for the training session for today. Since Pearl wasn't there to teach, the dummies made by Bismuth had to be used for the session instead. It's too bad though that the birds were still around, perched up on the Sky Arena's main entrance piece. It didn't take very long until some of the group noticed the three starting to come in.

"Lapis!" called a waving Pinkie Pie.

"Hey Lapis, welcome back. You and Jamie had fun?" asked Garnet.

"Oh, yeah I had a fun time. I'll say something about it in a minute, but first, what's going on here?" Lapis inquired.

"We're just getting some ol' fashion training started with some of Bismuth's dummies. It's special training today for Steven and Connie and ... that's all we know," replied Rainbow Dash, showing Lapis the dummies over nearby. It was then their attention went over to Peridot and Pearl with Lapis.

"You brought them here with you," noted Steven.

"Pearl and Peridot? Yeah, that's kinda why I'm here too," Lapis said. Before she could go and say what, they all then began to see a portal from one portal key start to open up out in the Sky Arena. A quick moment later and out came Connie, quickly shutting the portal behind her, big bag in hand with all the supplies they needed.

"Connie you made it," said Steven.

"Oh, uh hey Steven. Yeah, I'm not missing any training for the world," Connie said, looking into her bag for a bit more, pulling out the items they would need for and after the training. This included some juices she brought for them, delicious and filling pineapple flavored.

"A refreshment for your body and brain, my dear?" said Connie with a smile.

"Why Connie, that's so thoughtful of you," said Steven ... just for the two to chuckle afterwards. They still shared the pineapple juice though. Though as they enjoyed the drinks before the training could begin, a few of the others were starting to notice a few details on Connie's person, such as a hint of baggy eyes and a slightly less smooth flow to her hair.

"Don't tell me, had a rough night? Because you're not the only one not capable of sleeping," asked Spinel, checking out Connie's hair and how worn out it looked.

"Huh? Umm, yeah. Rough night. ... again. Don't worry, I'm still ready to start," Connie said.

"Ya sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. Steven, whenever you're ready," Connie replied.

"Yep, I'm ready. Bismuth, activate the -"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Garnet, "We wanted to show you two something important before you start. This is a special training session after all."

"Special? Oh no, was I supposed to bring something?" Connie asked.

"Nope. We made a few signs," Garnet revealed. Then, appearing from behind her back she was holding what looked like a picket sign she made herself. Nothing too fancy, just a couple of words written on it in dark pink color marker. In a flick of the wrist she "spawned" in three more, which Spinel, Pinkie, and even Bismuth were more than happy to take for their support.

"This side is to cheer Steven and Connie," explained Garnet. But then she turned around the sign, showing more writing in the back of it and added "and THIS is for Stevonnie. It's two signs in one. ... A Fusion sign."

"Oh. Fusion training," Connie realized. Steven and Connie looked to one another for a brief moment, their minds starting to shift back to a particular night back on Homeworld, and how much trouble that even was. They knew how Fusion training worked, they've done it a few times before, but today they weren't too sure about it.

"You ... don't like it?" asked Fluttershy.

"No, no it's great, great Fusion joke. Come on Connie let's get started," Steven said, trying not to feel so rough about the idea, and bringing Connie out towards the arena.

"I wasn't asking about the joke," Fluttershy noted. Still, the others sat down by the front stairs and bleachers as Steven and Connie were ready to get themselves going. It didn't take a detective to see something wasn't sitting too well with those two, but they didn't want to bother them and break any concentration.

"You sure you want to do this, Connie?" Steven quietly asked. Connie took a breath.

"Yes. For Stevonnie's sake. I want her to enjoy herself again," Connie replied. Steven smiled.

"Me too. ... Let's do it."

So it began. This time the fusion dance didn't take so long, and they were more focused on the fusion part rather than the dance part but the second the two held hands was when the light began to shown brightly. As they were fusing, the cheering friends turned their signs around so it showed for Stevonnie instead of Steven and Connie. THIS time though, the fusion actually managed to complete the transformation, and there was Stevonnie standing there at the ready for the actual fight.

"C-Connie?" gulped Pearl. Lapis kept her sights away from the action as Stevonnie took a moment to get used to herself.

"Bismuth, get them started. We're ready to start now," Stevonnie announced.

"You got it. Show the world what you can do!" Bismuth called, before she gave a good and loud whistle that echoed across the arena. Like the start of a wrestling ring's bell, the dummies set down all over the place started to become activated and started moving around the fusion. It was like a swordsman version of a shooting gallery, and Stevonnie was ready to get started with her weapon of choice. After getting herself together, she began to get to work on the dummies, working in quick attack with her kicks and slashes of her sword. A stranger note too, Lapis turned away from the fighting and noticed the birds watching the whole fight go down. Something about the fight was making them more and more riled up.

"Psst, hey. Does anything look off to you? Meaning, those birds?" Lapis asked the nearest pony.

"Huh? Birds? What birds?" asked Rarity. Lapis would've bought it if the tine didn't sound so genuine.

"The birds literally swarming the place right over there. They're looking a bit jumpy," Lapis said worriedly. If they were anything like the birds back at the Beach House, then they need to get themselves prepared. The Unicorn turned around and saw the birds too, seeing a few of them watching with anticipation.

"Lapis, don't pay attention to them. They're not a big problem," Rarity said.

"Rarity, there's literally over a hundred up there right now. That's a little concerning," Lapis pointed. Rarity stopped and looked back again.

"... Umm, you feeling okay, Lapis?" Rarity asked.

"Huh?"

"Steven! Connie! Ste-Von-Nie!" cheered Spinel, getting their attention back to the fight and away from the devil birds sitting up there. But still, there was an ominous feeling going over much of the Gems thanks to these birds. They were quiet, but they were eyeing them all down with a lot of anticipation. A little more diligent. A little more impatient. Especially with Pearl still crying by Lapis's side in silence.

Anyway, Stevonnie out in the field continued to keep her focus up on the fight in front of them, working through dummy after dummy as best she could do while keeping herself together. At least here there was something both sides can focus on rather than the party on Homeworld. She kicked one dummy, and punched another, and brought out her sword for the third strike, and this strike she made with a huge jump in the air to avoid two more dummies rushing towards her.

"Connie?"

suddenly something started to happen. It happened so quick too. Stevonnie first saw a dummy there, but one blink of the eye saw someone else there. Someone that Steven never seen before, but Stevonnie still looked in horror anyway. He looked average for a kid his age: black short hair, basic blue-green shirt and dark-blue shorts, black sneakers ... and a surprised look on his face.
It was enough to make Stevonnie slow her swing just enough for the dummy to move aside, her sword slicing into the ground as she was suddenly back in reality.

"No Stevonnie, keep it together. You're fine, you're healed. They're just practice dummies. Just. Dummies," Stevonnie told herself, just for one of the dummies to bump right into her. It would've done it a bit harder too, but Stevonnie jumped away and brought her sword out, making a direct stab into -

Garnet?!

This time Stevonnie panicked, seeing that her sword stabbed Garnet right through her stomach. It wasn't on her Gemstones, but it still was just as horrific for her. Stevonnie dropped her sword and moved back, the whole world around her turning darker, and turning gray as "Garnet" started to tremble a little bit, dropping to her knees before she began to split. Rather than poof though, she literally split in two right down the middle, something beginning to rush out in a white blur and a cyclone. It was moving too quick to comprehend what they were, but they were circling around the now panicking Stevonnie for a bit, the fusion not fighting but instead screaming as she covered her head. The white cyclone was freaking them out plenty, but then the two started to see very dark shadows that was making the white cyclone scatter quick, being replaced by black feathers of one of the larger birds' wings. The bird was getting tired of waiting, and with a single flap of the wing it made a falcon dive.

"STEVONNIE!"
Just in time by Lapis Lazuli. Steven and Connie flew in the air for a bit, landing hard on the ground from what they just saw, surprising everyone else there at this reaction. This time no one was mistaking the problem here, seeing Steven and Connie both looking horrified about ... whatever it was they were seeing. But that was the least of their problems, as the large bird was now squawking and frantically trying to get back to its feet, but once it did it quickly flew away again.

"You two okay?" Lapis asked.

"I think so. Connie, what about you?" Steven managed to say, though now his heart was racing.

"I-I'm ... I'm fine ... I should be fine ... I-I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm ..."

"Connie. Connie, what's wrong?" Steven asked urgently. Connie clearly was not fine, covering her head as a heavy shadow loomed just above her, wings flapping just enough to keep it off the ground, but still slow enough to keep it from flying away. Connie could feel the weight keep her down, stuck in her own little world ...

"CONNIE! No! Don't go, not again!" Pearl said, suddenly rushing out towards her.

"P-Pearl?"

"My Connie, I'm so sorry. I'm a terrible Pearl, why did I let you get hurt? I'M SORRY CONNIE!" Pearl said, still mournful as ever. Pearl then got into a crying fit again, laying herself on top of Connie who was still too scared to react properly thanks to what just happened. So much mourning and fear in one moment. And all of the birds could sense it.

"Uhh ... does anybody else feel like everything's gonna get all energetic in a few seconds?" Pinkie asked in a shiver.

The birds couldn't wait any more.

"Everyone. Warp Pad. Now!" Garnet warned. Too little too late.

*CAAWW!*
The flock of birds dove right into them all! It was an entire wave of beaks, talons and feathers as many of the Harmony Gems were thrown out into the arena, each one fighting their own flock of birds. They tried getting to the Warp Pad but none of the birds were making that any easier for any of them; some more focused on trying to fight off the birds while others were just trying to get away. Even some of their strongest were having difficulty; Garnet swarmed by several birds and whenever she could force a group off of her one point they just jump back at her. Bismuth, even with her hammer arms swinging and even cracking the ground once or twice weren't handling so many at once even if managing to get a few of them under her swings. The Gems may be in trouble but the Ponies were blind-sided (well most of em were)

"What the hay?!" said Rainbow Dash, almost taking off she got up so fast.

"Guys, what's going on?!" asked Applejack.

"What do you mean what's going on, we're being attacked!" Jasper shouted, swinging her fists everywhere like some rabid gorilla, and probably doing just as bad.

"By what?" Pinkie asked.

"THE BIRDS! Don't you see em?!" Spinel screamed, huddled up on the ground as her arm was spinning like a helicopter blade to keep the birds away.

"I ... NO!"

"No? The heck do you mean -" Spinel was cut short when a bird knocked her to the ground. They didn't have too much time to actually question any of this, as the birds kept trying to make mincemeat out of them, pecking, and clawing with talons. It looked like a crazy battle for the Gems, but most of the ponies were only seeing the Gems freak out. Speaking of ponies, a few birds targeted them too, and it turned out Fluttershy and Twilight were the targets. Both ponies were basically tackled off of the bleachers and right out into the field, Twilight getting a forcefield up as Fluttershy kept behind her, covering her head. Twilight was seeing at least three or four large birds, looking frantic and vicious, whereas Fluttershy saw about two of them, both were extremely aggressive towards her.

"I'm coming guys! You four, follow me!" Lapis said, quickly taking off after the birds, but the four ponies don't know where to go at first.

"To where?!" Rainbow asked. No time to answer that question, as Lapis dove right into the fray. Lapis went dead set onto the bird flock, her dashing making them rush into the air to avoid her. Even when Lapis kept rushing back and forth through the birds to try and make them go, it still wasn't enough to keep them from their crazed assault. She did manage to get a few of them, but she needed more help.

"Okay this is weird, but let's get in there!" Applejack said.

"But do what? We can't exactly see them you know," Rarity asked. Good point, but if they didn't do something then they're all gonna be fighting a swarm of these birds. Either fighting or blocking, they weren't gonna get anywhere this way.

"Hey Rainbow, I got an idea," Applejack said, "You go out there and get a tornado going, the rest of ya, get behind me and ready to fetch em outta this tussle, got me?"

"Got it!" Rainbow said. So Rainbow Dash flew off up first, as fast as she could fly. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie stood at the ready, hooves digging in the ground ready to charge.

"Everyone, tell us when those birdies get away from you! The rescue team's ready!" Pinkie called. They weren't sure what they were gonna do, but the fighting suddenly almost seemed to stop once Rainbow Dash began her own act of flying in circles. So quickly she flew she was a blur in the air, and Rainbow didn't stop until the wind around her started to spin. Little by little, a tornado was starting to show up, the rapid winds whipping around them and starting to pull them closer to it. Almost immediately, the others got down as close to the ground as they could, as all of the birds were starting to get themselves sucked into the tornado. Of course they kept trying to stay to their targets but the winds were too strong to even remotely try. It took only a minute before the tornado was filled with feathers and vultures, and while the three couldn't see them they could tell that it was working.

"Keep it up, you're blowing the whole flock away!" said Steven.

"Get a hoof on y'all, while they're getting tossed around," Applejack said, her and her two helpers rushing in. As the birds kept dealing with the tornado, the others got to their friends and got them moving away from the arena as quickly as they could manage (Pinkie Pie being the quickest in that part). Every shield was dropped, and every fist unclenched as they focused on getting themselves moving away from the swarm.

"Good plan, Applejack," Twilight said as they got moving.

"Thanks a bunch. Rainbow we're good, come on!"

Rainbow Dash stopped her flying and quickly changed direction to join up with them. However, without somepony to keep the whirlwind up, that made the tornado stop and the flock started to regain themselves again, albeit very dizzy. By the time the flock regained their composure the group just got out of the exit, and the flock quickly bolted right for them. As the same as before, everyone got the Warp Pad working just moments before the flock could even get them.

They all practically fell right into the Beach House in a mass tumble by the time they got there.

"... I'M ALIVE! Less importantly it looks like we all made it," said Peridot, who was upside down and by the wall.

"No we're not." gulped Lapis.

They ... kinda forgot that a flock was waiting at the Beach House too. And now that they were ALL back, and with no screen to keep em out they were slowly beginning to come in towards them. Guess a few minutes away gave the flock time to get comfy as they were all over the place (according to some of them anyway).

"Oh. Right ... eep!" Peridot yelped before bolting back to the rest, the birds starting to go for her. But here was the thing: Peridot got back to the rest, but the birds strangely stopped when AJ, Rarity, Rainbow, and Pinkie stood against them. The four weren't seeing anything from any bird, but Peridot was left stunned seeing the birds just flat out stopping in front of these four ponies ... and turning around and flying out.

"... K ... they gone? For real now?" asked AJ.

"Y-Y-Y-Yes," said Peridot.

Lucky break. They calmed down once they got that news, but as the four ponies looked back to them all. Well, they didn't look like they were feeling any better about it. In fact, they looked shell-shocked mostly, some with tears coming down their faces ... okay, most of them.

"There there, don't let those ol buzzards shake you up like that," said Applejack, going over to Steven. But that didn't seem to make them feel that much better, though some of them didn't even realize they were crying until after it being pointed out to them. But for one of them, it was just a little bit too much.

"I need to get home."

"Connie?" Steven said, but Connie was already rushing off away from the house, not even caring that the hole in their house was a thing.

"Go get her," said Applejack. And so Steven did, as everyone else stuck behind to try and figure this whole thing out. These birds were now an official threat.


~~~~~~


Lucky for Steven, he didn't have to go too far before he found where Connie was again. Connie was trying to get herself back home still, but she only got to Beach City's Big Donut before Steven could catch up to her. As for Connie, she was holding her head down a bit, knowing very well those birds are probably watching her somewhere even if she can't see them. She looked so tired now.

"Connie, wait up," Steven said, catching up to his girlfriend by the time they both just passed by the Big Donut. Connie didn't look very happy to see him catching up to her, just looking away.

"Everything okay? Talk to me, Connie," Steven insisted, hand on Connie's shoulder. Clearly something was wrong that Connie wasn't telling him, though given the fusion they tried to do Steven might have some idea what that would be. Not enough to confirm anything though and he didn't want to straight up point it out to her, in case it would make her upset. Connie for one moved Steven's hand away.

"... I've hurt someone."

"Excuse me?" Steven asked, confused. Both kids then heard some birds somewhere by them, but couldn't see anything as Connie continued.

"Ever since these birds arrived, I've been so anxious. They've been making me jumpy, maybe even trigger-happy. I was at High School and ... I don't even know what happened, I wasn't focusing and then someone grabbed my shoulder, a-and I just reacted! ... Then I just ran away. I hurt someone and I didn't even do anything about it," Connie explained.

Ooooo did that hit close to home for Steven, as he suddenly started feeling regretful too.

"So ... that kid we saw while training. ...?" Steven correctly assumed.

Connie paused, but just nodded gravely. 

"I know how that is. Whether you meant to or not, then you end up hurting people even if you didn't mean to ... and then getting scared over what the others think of you afterwards ..."

"Oohh," Connie groaned, hands over her face, "It's getting so bad I can't even sleep anymore. I haven't had a good night sleep since ... well, since those birds showed up! What if it breaks me?"
The idea of breaking immediately reminded them both of a little something from both of their pasts. Breaking now was the last thing either of them need

"Well ... then I'll just have to put you back together," Steven concluded.

But suddenly Connie stopped and stared ahead.

"S-Steven. Steven hold my hand," Connie said stuttering and staring ahead. Steven did so, but he didn't know what was scaring Connie now. Well, that was until he looked to where Connie was looking. There were a few people out and about today, wary thanks to their own birds following them around depending on who they are. But they saw a boy amongst the crowd, and what was worse than that, this boy had a cast on his arm. NOT something that Connie was ready for.

"I-I ... I broke his arm ...?"

"Connie, is that the same kid you're talking about? Connie?" Steven asked, but Connie was backing up away. He didn't see them yet, so Connie had time to turn around and make a run down the next block corner so he wouldn't catch her. Steven quickly followed her.

"Connie! Where're you going?"

"Steven, I can't face him, not now! What's he gonna say when he sees me just walking up to him?" Connie asked in a panic.

"You mean that's the kid you hurt?"

"YES, and apparently it's bad enough to give him a hospital bill! Oh Steven, I feel so awful," Connie said, covering her face in shame. As Connie herself was contemplating the horror that will come down onto her, the two started to feel another much bigger regret start to loom over them both. Steven specifically remembering something Connie said back on Homeworld about him not being the only one with problems ...
But with these thoughts getting scrambled in her head, Connie looked up just passed Steven, and saw that one of the birds had found her and was coming in as fast as it possibly could. Immediately Connie stood up and got ready to run -

"GUYS! There you are!"

Scratch that, it was Rainbow Dash instead coming in from the Temple, and coming in for a landing. Rainbow Dash landed down quick as she usually does, so even if there was a bird coming in it probably would've bolted somewhere else to get out of Rainbow's way.

"Rainbow Dash! What's going on, is something wrong? Preferably non-bird related?" asked Steven.

"No, not that. You're not gonna believe this, just after you left we're all inside, Flint shows up and ... well come on, you'll figure it out when we get back to Little Homeworld, there's a big meeting and everything," Rainbow explained, trying to get them to head on back.

"Flint showed up? Wait, you mean ...?"

"They've actually figured it out!"

.......

"You mean these birds aren't real?!"

The first and quickest question asked by Fulgurite the moment the revelation came up to them. All of the Harmony Gems and Off-Colors, even the other residence of Beach City this time were brought right back to Little Homeworld by Flint's request (probably because there's enough room for them all). As for Flint and Ronaldo, they got the main idea drawn up on the chalkboard, with the birds looming over a downed person like the vultures they seem to represent. They all were seeing the birds all over the place still, but this weird knowledge meant that it wasn't entirely as physical as they seem to be.

"Not un-real," continued Flint, "But after we kept looking around it seems that there's more to these flocks than just a bunch of birds conveniently picking targets. It's obvious they're interacting with us in some way."

"Exactly!" added Ronaldo, slamming his hand onto the chalkboard to get their attention, "They're emotional-leeches, feasting on your past sins and draining you of all of your emotions! They're here to feast on all the negativity in town and take over -" Flint gave him a bonk in the head so he wouldn't go too far.

"I draw the line at "take over the town" but Ronaldo's got the idea."

"But we hardly seen any birds today. Except for Padparadscha's infant bird. How is that understandable?" asked Fluorite.

"You still don't have that bird do you?" whispered Lars. Padparadscha waited a bit but quickly shook her head for no. Flint gestured Ronaldo to flip the chalkboard and it showed another picture, this time the picture showing different people with different number of birds around them.

"Ronaldo and I have been asking around town, and it turns out different people have only seen a particular amount of birds. Some don't even see any birds, some are seeing fewer birds whereas others are seeing a whole flock of them around all the time."

"But that don't explain why we can't see em," pointed out Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity agreeing with a nod. Flint simply had a question for that answer.

"Well, how many sins did you do Applejack? Anything you've regretted in the past that you hadn't exactly got over?" Flint inquired.
Almost immediately, the entire group was starting to get the picture. Just how many regrets and sins can one say for a bunch of war veterans?! If any of this was true then it's no wonder they were seeing so many of these birds around them. Still, Applejack took a moment to think, but eventually came up with nothing too fancy.

"Well ... I mean, I got grounded once for breaking a bunch of eggs from the chicken coop. And maybe this one time when I tried handling the apple-bucking all by myself."

"Those don't count AJ," Flint said.

"Well what does count?" asked Star Quartz. Flint felt a shiver.

"Let's see. Betrayal. Thievery. Tyranny. And if you wanna get real deep, murder, geocide, slavery, or -"

"That's far enough Flint!" Garnet quickly cut in urgently, not wanting to finish that sentence for the life of her or anyone else. Flint clammed up and continued.

"W-Well you get the idea. Essentially anything that's a crime counts as a sin, and apparently these birds like that," Flint said, pointing up to where he was seeing the birds ... but no one else was seeing where he was pointing.

"Umm Flint, nothing's there," said Tiger's Eye.

"My point."

"OOOHHH Flint don't you start saying you're mr. goodie-goodie because clearly you're -"

"Of course not, are you kidding?" Flint cut in. "What I'm meaning is that every person has different regrets, and therefore ..."

"They see different birds," concluded Connie. "But wait, they can still attack us, how can they if only one person can see their own bird?"

Flint looked back up to where he was seeing the birds, which to him he was actually seeing a lot of them looking down on him, giving him a shiver as he continued. 

"They're not birds exactly, they're emotion. You can't touch emotions ... but emotions can touch you."

"... THAT'S NEAT! How do we get rid of them? Stop feeling things?" Fulgurite asked. A sarcastic joke that Flint decided to ignore.

"Well I haven't gotten that far yet, but they still hadn't done anything ... yet. So that gives us time to figure this -" That response got the town on edge rather quickly.

"You got to get rid of them! They're scaring away my customers, and freaking me out!" Kofi Pizza said.

"It also doesn't help that I can't even sleep with those things squawking all night," added a tired-looking Martha Barriga. Her and a few others.

"That's where you're wrong Flint," Garnet said, "They swarmed us back at the Sky arena. They're getting impatient, and they don't want to wait any longer."

"They what? All of you?" Flint said, surprised in a way but also slightly expecting it to happen sooner or later.

"We were training as Stevonnie, but then we started seeing things, we split up, and suddenly the birds just started going crazy, and got everyone," said Steven.

"Not EVERYONE, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and me didn't see any of those foul creatures anywhere," Rarity said.

"Maybe that's because we don't got anything we regret that's bad enough for them to deal with us," Applejack said. Made sense to them, or at least it was the best they were going to get with these creatures. Flint then started addressing them all again, this time stepping aside to give a free space out on the field.

"Okay, so here's what's gonna happen: whoever hasn't been seeing birds these past few days come out of there and stand over by me, whoever has just stay where you are," Flint said.

"... We're not gonna do that," Garnet said.

"Huh? Garnet we need to find who's seeing them and who's -"

"Flint." Garnet placed a hand on his shoulder and rather than explain herself, all she did was shake her head. Flint stayed quiet for a minute, and eventually caved.

"Okay we're not doing that," Flint concluded, rubbing his arm. Probably a smart move on their part, and there were some sighs of relief coming from the audience. Separation wasn't the way to go.

"Okay here's the main idea: for those who don't see the birds, try to comfort those that are and make sure, just in case more birds somehow appear, don't commit any sins or crimes while we get the solution together. Don't feed the birds."
Now came the strange part, at least to those that can see the birds. Flint's explanation seemed to bother the birds again, but not in the same way as them being exposed to misery or panic, but more irritation that this solution was even suggested. Not enough to leave, but still enough to deter them at least a little bit.

"They didn't like that one," thought Bismuth, and indeed that felt true. Either way, this was the best answer they were going to get right now. However, before anyone could go, Spinel actually raised her hand good and high (and even inflated it so he could see).

"Yes uhh ... Spinel?" said Flint, pointing her out of the crowd.

"Ehh, okay uhh ..." it took her a bit to actually say it, "Do any bugs count in this scenario or no?"

"Bugs? Spinel?"

"Yeah," Spinel said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, "I've been seeing a lot more of those lately, and they've been driving me nuts, so uhh ... is that relevant?"

There was a moment of quiet, making Spinel clam up even more. First these birds, now insects? still, given the evidence they had on hand, Flint shook his head.

"That sounds like a completely different thing ... but just in case. If anyone sees bugs only they can see, let us know! Alright, you all can go now."
Not the best answer Spinel was hoping for. With the clear, the residence went off and continued their day, leaving the Off-Colors and Harmony Gems left there to try and figure things out, though Spinel was just left standing there feeling uncomfortable. Bringing up a subject for no reason would make her feel that way.

"Good job, Flint. You did great," Garnet congratulated.

"Well Ronaldo helped," Flint admitted, not wanting the entire credit for the studies.

"So what's the plan now chief? I can get another tornado going and get the flock flying away, just say the word and I'm on it," Rainbow Dash said, ready to go off flying again to do just that. If it worked to the Sky Arena, then it'll work just fine here. However, Rainbow quickly got grabbed by Twilight before she could run off to do that.

"Rainbow don't do that! You'll blow half of Little Homeworld away if you do that here," Twilight insisted. Rainbow sat back down on the ground, but not thrilled that the easy route can't be used again. The birds were relieved though of not having to get blown off of their perch but that didn't mean they were feeling so thrilled now that they got them figured out.

"Well we can't see any of them, how can we fight something we can't see? That tornado worked well back at the arena," Rainbow retorted.

"That was the arena. This is Little Homeworld," stated Garnet. Good point there. They didn't need to go and re-build Little Homeworld just to get rid of a bird flock. Still, those that could see the birds were still getting a bit wary of them, but as they kept on with it, Garnet spotted Steven and Connie beginning to go away from them on their own way.

"Steven. Connie," Garnet said, making the two stop.

"Sorry, I'm just getting Connie back home," Steven said.

"Before you do, we just want to check if everything's okay with both of you. ... With you, Connie," Garnet said.

"Yeah, everything good? You kinda ran off on everybody," asked Pinkie curiously. Connie felt uneasy again, but this time she wasn't alone.

"Guys don't bother her about it. What happened in the Sky Arena was both of our faults anyway," Steven said.

Just as Garnet suspected.

"So you both were troubled before you both split," Rarity concluded.

"... Yeah," Steven and Connie concluded. Garnet, gestured to by Rarity, went down to their level.

"For a fusion to work, there needs to be balance," Garnet explained, "An imbalance can cause your fusion to lose touch with reality, see things that aren't there, and eventually fall apart. That is to say, if one of you is falling apart, your fusion will as well. And if both of you is falling apart, then your fusion can't exist."
That part made a bit too much sense. Steven and Connie both thought back to not only the actual fusion attempt in the arena, but also back to the Homeworld ball. Both times Stevonnie was lucky to even get started, let alone stuck around.

"The fusion can't exist ..." repeated Steven.

"For balance, you need to see things more clearly. To understand and face your problems, without running away from them."

"Garnet ... I'm -"

*caw*

Another bird. Right on Flint's chalkboard. One that only Connie could see just looming there. Standing taller than she saw it before, it stared Connie down with eyes that struck Connie down into her soul ...

"... gonna go home and think about what you said," Connie decided, and she had to turn and go off before anything else could happen. Some of them quickly checked where Connie was looking as she raced off, but of course they weren't seeing the large bird, even after it jumped off of the chalkboard and slowly hovered and soared away.

"Connie, wait, we're not done yet," called Garnet. But Connie didn't stop moving, and just continued on her way.

"... Portal Key?"

"Right away."


~~~~~~


Connie did eventually calm down just enough so that she was walking home rather than running, but that didn't mean that dread and worry weren't stuck on her mind as she kept going on towards home. That monster of a bird more than proved it, circling far over her head like the vulture it was. The walk did give Connie time to think as best she could.

"I know why you're following me, but ... why? There's got to be a time when you're somewhere else and don't need to follow me around. Don't you need to keep hydrated? Find food? Groom yourselves? ... Maybe since they're not real they have nothing else they need to do."

Her walk turned into a bit more of a brisk pace when that was decided, but the bird still kept following her through the whole way there. The large vulture found a nice comfortable perch over on top of Connie's home, looking down as if it was a stone Gargoyle. Connie looked up to the bird, the creature leaning pretty far forward just to keep an eye on where she was going. Connie shivered.

"You look awfully hungry ..." Connie shook her head, "No, don't feed the birds remember that. I'll just distract myself with some reading, that usually works."

*SKRAAWH!*

"Stop it! That's just not fair!" Connie shouted. Then again, that did work: it got Connie's attention. It also didn't help that the bird jumped off the rooftop and soared down closer to the front door this time. Connie needed to get inside, and NOW, so she got the door open and shut it quick behind her before the bird could follow her in. The loud door shut didn't go unnoticed for long.

"Connie, that you?" called Doug.

"Oh, hi dad, I'm home. Sorry for the noise," Connie said, still shaken. She was probably happy that her dad couldn't see the bird outside the door, but now she had to come up with an excuse for slamming the door.

"Forget about the door, what about you honey?" asked Priyanka as Connie was walking in.

"Me? Oh umm, it's fine, everything's ... just a bit stressful," Connie said, rubbing the back of her head.

"We figured as much. Garnet did say you needed some help tonight," Priyanka said.

"Help? - ... wait, Garnet's here?"

"Surprise sleepover!"

Out came not Garnet, but a number of the ponies Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, along with Steven and Spinel to boot.

"Hey Connie," said Steven.

"Steven? Spinel - girls? What're you all doing here?"

"To make sure you get a good night sleep," said Spinel, though a bit more toned down than her typical jumpy nature. Appropriate too given the situation.

"Yeah, you looked a bit too stressed out with those birds flying around so we thought to give you a hoof," Applejack explained.

"It's okay, you all don't have to do that for me. I just need something to keep myself busy," Connie insisted. That only seem to make the others a bit more on the nose, as Rarity levitated what looked like a tea cup to her, already having a nice warm tea inside.

"Why else do you think we're here darling?" Rarity said, "Think of it as like umm ... a sleepover!" Rarity said.

"Only this sleepover's mandatory because we're gonna play watchdog while you sleep to keep the nightmares away," said Pinkie with a wink.

"A mandatory sleepover ... well then, I guess I can't say no to that," Connie admitted. Maybe this idea could help her out more than she thought.

"That's the ticket! So what's number one on our agenda: pillow fighting? Juicy gossip? OH, how about a baking competition hosted by yours truly?" Pinkie said.

"You're not cooking in my kitchen," Priyanka said. She was in no mood for cleaning up after Pinkie's mess. Pinkie did feel sad, but got the idea.

.......

It's amazing what can be done in just a few hours: with Doug and Priyanka just standing side to let them have their fun, Connie had quite a fun time with her pals, doing what she would normally NEVER do under normal company, AKA regular sleepover activities:
They blew up the pillows in their pillow fight in clouds of white feathers, and learn just how merciless Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash can be in a pillow warzone. A lot of new hairstyles were discovered from the fabulous Rarity's fashionista touch that night. Once more, they had a lot of time to just chat away about who knows what. Sadly, no cooking ... but they still crafted some good sandwiches.
But alas, as fun as it was, Connie could still sense the presence of that bird looming just outside. On the flipside it couldn't get in even if it wanted to, as everyone made sure to keep any windows shut while they were playing around. Not even all of the cleaning they did in between activities can get the feeling to go away. Despite the feeling though felt by some, they tried keeping themselves busy without that messing up their night.

You know, until they had to go to bed.

"So let me make sure I got this right," said Connie as she got Pajama self into bed, "You guys are going to sleep outside while I'm alone in here."

"I mean, I did ask to sleep with ya, but your parents REALLY didn't want that. Offer's still open though," Spinel said. Understandable.

"Just give us a shoutout and we'll clobber whatever comes in here," said Rainbow Dash. Connie just sighed and laid down in bed.

"... Thanks guys," Connie said. She gave a yawn, and closed her eyes for a bit.

"Don't be scared of that bird Connie. I don't care, I won't let anything bad happen to you," Steven quietly promised. That was the last thing he said to her before he and the others stepped out of the room. It was gonna be a very long night.

Well, there she was. The night ticked on. And on. And on. Connie had been given all the protection she could ever needed: her friends were just a room away, ready to jump at a moment's notice. The alarms were all set up. The window sealed shut, but Connie still felt so insecure without her weapon to back her up in case SOMEHOW it could come for her with everything sealed tight. Despite that though, Connie did try to go off to sleep, but it seemed that no matter what she tried to do it just wasn't working. Just the thought of one of those creatures coming out again kept her tossing and turning. She tried just laying on her back …

A thought about the creature rushing her at the theater, and she was laying on her side to try and sleep.

A thought of the incident during school, and she laid on her other side.

A thought about the incident during training, and she tried covering her head with her pillow.

A thought of seeing that straight jacket -

"Too hot!" Connie suddenly snapped, throwing the blanket off of her. It was more than she could bare, and she just couldn't get herself to go to sleep.

"... I can't sleep anymore," Connie thought, her eyes continuing to look around. "Steven said I was healed, but … Those monsters. T-They're waiting for my friends - t-they're waiting for me! I -"

*scratch* *scratch*

They were back. Connie tried to cover her ears to the scratching noise, but no matter how much she tried, it was still there. Still waiting for her to finally slip away. The claws still beckoning her to let it in. A hiss that stroked her paranoia like the chimes of a rattlesnake. It will NOT LEAVE HER ALONE. But as it kept clawing the window -

"N-No. No. I-I'm not letting you in, you can't get me!" Connie insisted, smiling to mask her fear from the monster outside. It kept slowly bringing its claw up, and pitifully clawing the window like a cat would do. Connie, unable to even sleep, could only sit there and stare at the monster. The second it breaks in, she was ready to bolt for the door and to wake up the others. But then, after what felt like forever of staring and clawing, the beast began to turn, and disappear from sight. 

"D-did … did I win?" for the first time in days, Connie was feeling a bit more secure. No monster in her room, and this time without any sedatives, or Luna's night magic. Her smile became more genuine as she finally started to calm down, only for it to quickly drop again when the sound of that same creature echoed outside. It was very faint like the night wind, but she knew it was somewhere there.

"Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it ... I really shouldn't ..."

Her nerves couldn't bare the anticipation. she HAD to check and make sure it was actually gone. So, reaching under her bed and pulling out her sword for some backup, she slowly started walking to her closed window. It felt so surreal almost: she did not want anything to do with that bird but at the same time, something kept urging her to see where it was.

"One ....... two ....... two and a half ....... NOW," She pushed it open and stabbed her sword right out, only to hit nothing but the night air. Well she got it open, might as well look outside. Connie went right to the window sill and immediately checked down to the ground. Then straight up into the air. Then side to side along the house at any balcony or perch. Not even a feather.

"I'm going crazy ... come on Connie, you've faced worse than this right? Heh, you're a natural by now. Just sleep it off, maybe it'll not exist tomorrow morning," Connie told herself, eyes wide despite her smile. With a few more nervous chuckles later, Connie closed up the window and turned to get back to bed ...
Just to find the bird staring her in the face. right on her bed.

"Huh?! W-Wha - but how'd you -"

*SKRAAWH!* The monster will not be denied. The screech, along with the wings spreading to cover one side of the room made Connie stumble back to the window with a loud thud, the vulture not giving her any time to even say anything as a large talon was suddenly wrapped around her mouth. The monster had her undivided attention, and this time Connie had nowhere to go. Connie couldn't call anyone, she couldn't scream, all of it was only making her more and more terrified as she stared directly into the bird's eyes, not able to look anywhere else.

"STEVEN! STEVEN IT GOT IN!" She tried to say through the muffled mouth under the bird's foot, but it was nowhere loud enough for anyone to hear. However, as Connie kept trying to move, or trying to break free, the bird didn't do anything else other than hold her down and stare at her. It did slowly open its beak, a loud hissing emitting from the depths of its throat. Connie felt frozen, her essence almost feeling like they were draining into this creature. She tried kicking it, but that hardly did anything.

"This is bad. I got to get away from here, but how?! If I stay like this ..." Connie didn't even want to know what'll become of her when this was over. Her eyes darted back and forth around the room. She can't fight it off, but all she needed was something to make some noise to get the others in here.

Her eyes then found her lamp.

"Sorry mom, but I have to!" Connie realized. Then came the struggle to actually move. Trying to crawl over to the lamp with the giant bird on her back was beyond difficult, especially with the bird trying to stop her any chance it could without knocking anything over. It didn't want any competition to charge in. It pecked at her, and tried keeping her down (even having the nerve to pull back on her hair) but Connie didn't stop for a moment, her hand reaching out just inches away from the lamp. Just a good push and that was all it was going to need.

"Come on ... almost there ... please, just. One. Shove," Connie thought. Her fingers were so close to it, inches away. But the bird was not gonna let her do it, and with a flap of the wing it pulled Connie right back to the floor, spinning her around again so it stared at her. Connie couldn't get out of it this time, and the bird stomped down onto her arm. While that did hurt her, something suddenly flashed in her head. As if that hit reminded her of something.

"W-Wait. What is this? ... Why's this familiar to me? W-What is this reminding me of?" Connie thought. She couldn't put a finger on it right away, but as the seconds ticked by, she felt more of her energy start to fade away ... at least, to the bird that's what it looked like so it loosened its grip just a tiny bit. Just enough for Connie to shove it off of her mouth.

"GUYS! GET IN HERE!!!" Connie screamed. The bird skree'd and launched back off of Connie from the yelling, but with her screaming it was sure enough to get the Connie's door swung open -

*SMASH*

Er, smashed open. A GIANT foot knocking down the door later, and soon Spinel rushed right in, not even knowing where any bird was. Though, in Connie's eyes, the kick alone knocked the bird clear out the window. All that was left were a bunch of feathers.

"Bring it on birdbrain! BRING IT - ... on ..." Spinel said. A bit late on that one. Everyone else caught up with Spinel and Connie, finding Spinel just standing on the door as Connie had her back against the wall.

"Connie!" shouted Doug.

"We're here Connie don't panic, where is it?" asked Rarity, looking around for any sign of it. Connie needed to comprehend what just happened.

"It's ... out the window. Thanks to Spinel. ... I'm ... alright now," Connie said, though mostly it was to herself.

"I did?" Spinel asked, honestly confused. But then the parents looked and noticed what Spinel did.

"Did you break that door?" Doug asked.

"Ehh ... I guess so."

*CAW!**CAW!**CAW!*

Just outside, the large bird was struggling to get back up to its feet, on its back from the blind hit. If these creatures were magical, then the hit must've stopped the illusion because when the others looked outside, they ALL could see the same bird.

"Huh, looks like ya did Spinny," said Pinkie.

"Wait, you can see it too? Not just me?" Connie asked urgently.

"Yeah we can. That hit must've made that bird become visible again. To everyone, not just you," Steven said. Honestly it was the only conclusion he could come to, but that was not the problem. As they looked down to the large animal, suddenly Pinkie began to feel something start to occur on her body. Mainly a rapid twitching in her tail.

"Something's about to fall ... HEADS UP AND TAKE COVER!" Pinkie said, grabbing them and pulling them inside away from the window. And just in time too, as a flurry of black feathers suddenly rushed straight down like a downpour of rain. No more nice guy, NO ONE side-kicks the bird monster and gets away with it! Looking up to them one more time ...

*Skreeeeeeee! Skreeeeeee!*

"Skree?" wondered Priyanka.

*caw*

When the flurry of feathers cleared, they all were looking outside to see that there was more than just one bird outside. Responding to the call, as if manifesting out of complete nowhere, the family and friends were witnessing a spawning of an entire swarm in every direction: the neighboring rooftops, the bushes along the sidewalk, even the distant light posts ALL had at least four to five birds just appearing from their invisibility cloak. One bird quickly turned into almost one hundred in a matter of seconds. And they ALL locked their eyes on the home.

"That's a lot of birds," gulped Steven, feeling a cold sweat.

"So what if there's a lot of them, we can take them on. None of those birdbrains are getting in here! ... Umm, again," Rainbow said, a snort from her muzzle. Finally a more proper match where she can actually see her opponent.

"NO! You're not going out there, are you insane? They're all waiting for you outside," Priyanka dictated.

"Ok then, we can wait it out until morning by uhh, staying in the basement! ... You have a basement right?" asked Pinkie.

"Stay together and wait here, I'll get the Gems," Steven said, going right for the door, "Make sure NONE of them get in here until I get back -"

*CAW!* "AAHH! NO! GET OFF ME!"

Too late: the second Steven opened the door to the hallway, a small black bird suddenly flew in and started flying like mad around like a panicked fly, and just a clutsy as it bumped and rammed into everything and everyone. It did peck at them a few times, keeping them all on their toes, but this was just nothing more than a distraction as a few more birds suddenly tried smashing through the window!

"They're trying to break in!" Rainbow shouted.

"None of y'all are gettin in here!" Applejack shouted.

"Okay, that's it. Connie, you and your friends get in the car! We're leaving," decided Doug.

(rush to the garage later)

*SCREECH!*
All of the birds were taken off guard when that garage door opened, and the car rushed right out of there, full speed. None of them were in it's way, but some still had to fly out of the way. Doug had to act pretty fast, shifting gears and leaving marks on the asphalt as the car quickly sped off into the night. Of course the flock was quick to start giving chase. Even in the dim light of the night, the rearview mirror can easily see a thunderstorms full of those birds flying after them.

"Can't this go any faster?" asked Steven.

"It's the most it can do, plus it's hard to go top speed in a residential area," Doug said. Turning wasn't any better, as making turns whenever they had to avoid a flock coming at them only seemed to make the swarm come faster. The sharp turns were also kind of tossing around the people in the back so that didn't help much either.
As they kept trying to get away, the racket coming from the animals was starting to wake up practically everyone in town, looking up into the night sky just for it to turn completely dark thanks to the swarm of birds. They could see the car driving through town, but with so many birds already there wasn't gonna be anyone risking rushing out to help them.

"The swarm's gaining on us!" Spinel yelped, pointing back to the flock closing the gap.

"Screaming and pointing aren't helping, Spinel. I'm going in!" Rainbow Dash said, and before anyone could stop her, she opened the back door and flew right out in one leap, her target being right at the flock. With none of them cloaking anymore, Rainbow Dash got a clear view and smashed right into the flock of birds, sending the swarm into a frenzy.

"RAINBOW! NO!" screamed Pinkie. Rainbow Dash bolted and rushed in and out of the bird swarm, getting a few good hits on some but even with her distracting some of them, the flock still had its focus more set on the moving car. Rainbow and all her speed kept trying to keep in front of them to buck them back, but one Pegasus could only do so much. It also didn't help that while the car was driving forward, one of the larger birds actually slipped by and landed RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!

"Dad, look out!" shouted Connie.

"GAH!" gasped Doug, slamming on the breaks. Even so, the car was moving fairly quick, and the sudden stop made the car begin to turn.

"Spinel, make like a lasso, pronto!" Applejack instructed, pointing to a nearby light post.

"Got it!" Spinel said. She stretched one of her arms in a way that her hand grabbed the same arm, making a lasso out of it. It took a good yet quick aim by Applejack, but the lasso arm got wrapped around the light post and held on tight. Applejack and Spinel held on tight to what they could, and the combined effort was just enough to keep the car from not only flipping over, but striking the bird.

... The bird sliced the tires in that moment too, not to mention jumping into the car. Everyone had to tumble out to get away from the mad bird, Applejack sending it away with a swift kick to the beak.

"Everybody okay?" asked Applejack.

"YAAAHHH!" Just before anyone could answer, Rainbow Dash was knocked down to the ground, still being pecked at by at least ten birds as she tried getting away. Flapping her wings, bucking, even biting, she tried everything to get them off her back but it was barely working.

"Stupid birds won't give me room to breathe. I think I lost half my feathers back there," Rainbow groaned, her wings sore from all the pecking she had to endure.

"There's too many of them. Guys, we have to do something before they go out on all the town," said Steven.

"Forget the town, what about us?!" exclaimed Spinel, "We're the ones they're after."

The flock began to close in on them more and more, a flurry of squawks and screes, with the largest in the flock landing down in front of the group with wings spread open as if it was trying to cover them all up. Its gaze was focused on just one of them though, one that it sensed had more sin than all of them put together -

WHACK! Distracted just long enough for Rarity to spring in with a karate kick to the bird's head.

"Why don't you stare at someone else, you beast!" Rarity snapped. But while the bird was knocked aside, there still was an effect given to them by the bird's eyes, as Steven brought both hands up to his face, rubbing his eyes a bit.

"Steven, you alright? Say something, bro, and quickly before the birds get more snappy," said Spinel, right at his side. Steven opened his eyes, blinking a little bit to make sure they didn't blind him or something, but sure enough he could still see. That didn't mean much though since the whole flock was still looming overhead like an enraged hurricane. As for the largest one that got kicked, it shook itself back to focus, and bellowed a loud screeching call that could only be related to a scratched chalkboard (and just as painful to listen). More birds tried to get close to them, diving down like groups of hawks with beaks and talons at the ready.

"No you don't!" Applejack said, her and Rainbow Dash getting in the way of the flock, with Pinkie and Rarity doing the same. Suddenly the birds were flying upward, and around them again unable to get passed the four "pure" Ponies guarding the sinned Gems and Humans. Spinel wrapped her arms around the others at least three times as they all huddled down as much as they could.

"Keep it up everypony, we can't let em at them," Applejack called, giving one bird a quick buck to the face.

"All of this for just one group of people? These birds are beyond desperate!" Rarity managed to say.

"Really? We haven't noticed - ACK! Back off buck-beak," Rainbow quickly gave her attacker a swift whack to get the bird off of her. But there was just one small error in this setup that the largest bird took full advantage of: They all were stressed out ... and they weren't moving.
The bird's eyes glowed bright.

"Don't look into it's eyes, it's trying to drain the energy out of you!" Connie warned, covering her eyes from the animal. Everyone else did the same but this vulture was sensing one target in mind, and it had a few more tricks up its feathers than just a few squawks.

But there was one boy who wasn't listening, and looked more like he was distracted by something else completely. That bird's flash magic did more than just make him lose sight for a few seconds. His gaze slowly moved down towards his stomach, following the sight of the largest bird of the flock.

"... No way. N-No, that can't be what's going on."

"What is it Steven? What's wrong?" Connie asked urgently. Steven then brought his hand to his gemstone, his hands tightening around it as the large vulture began to close the gap. It was very quick and clear what Steven was about to say.

"Steven don't think that, none of that was even you're fault! It's impossible those birds would be after you for ... her," Rarity said, trying to quickly calm him down.

"NO, N-N-NO that can't be! B-But I'm apart of her. My mom did SO MUCH WRONG while she was alive, and she didn't even bother to fix anything! She left Bismuth in Lion's mane, she lied to everyone about who she really was, she left Spinel behind because she got bored of her! I can't believe this. I've dealt with all her problems, I-I'm done with all that - I've been done with all of that! This can't be another thing mom left behind for me to fix!"
Steven's eyes were starting to show some tears as they kept their shocked look, Steven putting two and two together as the larger animal took the chance of vulnerability to subdue him. With no shield to block him, he was quickly jumped at, and soon he was stuck underneath the bird's talon, which turned his head so he was face-to-face with the large vulture.

"Get your dirty talons off him!" Spinel shouted, wrapping an arm around the bird and trying to pull it away, but while feeling pulled back the bird was not moving, using its beak to peck at Spinel's arm like it were an actual rope. The others grabbed hold and tried to get the bird off, but the smaller birds weren't making that easy for them as they were getting more than hungry themselves. Steven was trapped again. The sky looked so dark, nothing but black with glowing red eyes ...

Then the sky began to turn blue. The hue from the moonlight was just enough to pierce through the blackness, Steven's eyes finally being pulled away from the bird's eyes for a moment, as the bird itself quickly turned and followed his eyes to the sky.

"LAPIS!" the others shouted.

"Stand clear!" Lapis called. The birds couldn't get out of the way fast enough, as the water Gem done right into the battle, water wings spread and whacking away numerous birds all over the place, getting them away as best she could do. The larger bird was flat out tackled off of Steven, the animal sent flying into the air before it corrected itself.
Lapis did not come alone in this rescue, joined in toe by a few of the other Harmony Gems coming in to fight off the attacking flock. Starlight and Twilight kept their magic shields and blasts on ready, keeping whatever birds there were at bay from the others, as Jasper, Bismuth, and Garnet went for a more physical approach with fists and kicks. As they caught up, Lapis herself landed right by them, as everyone else quickly went to Steven's aid. Even though saved, Steven's emotions were already kicked into overdrive and tears were streaming down his face from the mere fact that this could possibly be all his fault.

"Everyone okay over here?" asked Bismuth.

"Everyone except Steven! I don't know what that bird did, but he's breaking down BIG TIME," said Pinkie Pie, and she proved right as Steven was trying just to keep from wailing altogether.

"Steven, stay with us buddy. You feeling okay?" asked Starlight.

"It's my fault! They're all here because of what happened with my mom, and now I'M carrying her burden again! They're all here because of me!" Steven cried.

"How the heck can you say that?! I'm the one they're after - I still hadn't even gotten over my problems," Connie said, getting emotional herself over all of this.

"Ok, now's not the time to blame anyone! We got a flock to get rid of up there! Get him out of here," said Jasper, getting their attention to the birds in the air. But the birds had different plans, especially now with A LOT more sins present ...

"Wait, don't!" Lapis cut in, before confronting Steven and Connie. "Listen to me, both of you. You can’t run away from yourselves. Wherever you go, you’ll be there. Trust me, I know."

A few squawks to get their attention, only this time the bird suddenly was looking COLOSSAL, easily larger than most of the buildings in town, wings spread open wide and eyes glowing a vibrant and almost blinding red. A echoing screech rang out throughout the entire town, and anyone in earshot was struck with a colossal hit of dread and sorrow, enough to send some to waterfalls of tears.

All but one.

Lapis Lazuli, still standing defiant against these creatures, only got out one single tear from the effects of these sin-feasting birds. Even the bird itself looked surprised seeing them, as Lapis simply wiped away the one tear in her finger, only having one thing to say to it.

"I've. Felt. Worse."

Then the tables were turned on the bird, and whipping out the water from her wings she grabbed hold of the animal in large watery hands. The large animal screeched and squawked trying to get away, but Lapis proved to be quite the adversary this time. With the largest one covered, Lapis slowly brought the bird down onto its stomach, Lapis going down onto her knees and pulling the animal down to earth. For a moment, it seemed that Lapis got it, but the feeling she was receiving felt so familiar to her. Something she felt more than once before ...

....... Something suddenly clicked. And just in time before the bird broke free from her restraints, the entire flock in a frenzy.

"What do we do now?!" asked Spinel.

The answer? ...

"Nothing! Sit down and do nothing!"

"WHAT?!"

"Trust me!" Lapis shouted. Strangely enough, in amidst of all of these birds, Lapis Lazuli got down onto the ground, crossed her legs, and took a breath before closing her eyes.

"Now's not the time for Meditation Class!" screamed a freaking out Spinel, making the birds riled up even more.

"These birds are our regrets. Now's the time to stop running," agreed Garnet, sitting down next to her and doing the same thing.

"Sitting isn't going to get rid of that flock of birds. We have to get in there and fight them off before they get the entire town -" Jasper was cut off when she heard Bismuth actually take a seat. A bit of a surprise to see her do it, but if the future-seer says they should do this, then they should probably listen.

"You sure about this?"

"More than anything," Garnet said.

It took a bit, but one by one everyone began to sit down. The entire flock around them soared above them all in their cyclone along with the giant bird, as they found themselves in presence of the entire group meditating. Eyes closed, them not fighting any of them.

*SCREEEEE!* called the giant bird. With them all not moving or fighting them the whole flock began swarming them, this time not holding anything back and basically toppling down on top of them. Swarms of birds surrounded each and every one of them, shrieking, cawing, squawking in their ears with large wings flapping and slapping them as they all tried to get their attention focused on them again. They all were feeling their nerves tested and they can imagine the beaks, talons, and wings flashing across their vision with each second they tried to do something to them. Some of the group were struggling just to keep from freaking out, shivering a bit to keep calm and not break the meditating session. Anyone looking at them could only see clumps of birds around the place, like groups of angry bees. Even with their eyes closed, the birds' presence forced them all into seeing flashes of their regrets whether they wanted to or not.

"Let them flow through your mind. You have to accept and be true to your mistakes before you can move on. ... Don't fight it. ... Breathe. ..."

Little by little, the birds were starting to get more ... mellow. Their frantic squawks and shrieks quieted down and their flapping started to slow. The vultures were actually beginning to calm down, and eventually, they stopped fighting all at once. The visions they were seeing were different per person, but still left them feeling rough about it all. But none of them at first opened their eyes or broke away from the session, the birds sensing the presence of these visions going through their heads. The giant bird loomed over all of them, but even then it didn't try attacking them like before, just looking them down and observing what was happening. It opened its beak and as before began to suck away their essence, but unlike before none of them actually felt tired or drained, the regrets it was actually getting swiftly disappearing.

Everything turned quiet.

"Is ... is it over?" Spinel wondered. Her curiosity couldn't help it, and she peeked through just one eye before both eyes shot wide open at what she was seeing.

The birds were starting to disappear. Not in the same way as simply vanishing to focus on one person, but instead their feathers almost seem to float off of each and every bird, disappearing into dust in the night wind. She really couldn't make heads or tails of it, but every Pony, Human, and Gem was having their own birds beginning to transform and drift away from them. Even the colossal bird, which just moments ago was ready to devour them, began to fade away from sight in dust and wind. Spinel could see tears from some of the mediators involved, but as the seconds ticked by and the birds vanished, they felt ... lighter.

By the time they were done, the birds were completely gone. Not even a feather remained.

"Whooooa. Guys? How do you feel?" Spinel asked.

"... Better," Connie managed to say, still wiping away some tears from her face.

"The birds. They're all vanished," realized Rarity, looking around above them just to find nothing remaining. For the first time in days they all were feeling pretty good. No more regret.

"That was amazing. If only we can do that with the rest of the town," said Pinkie.

Sometimes the answer can be so easy to find. A short minute of thinking and about what just happened, and Steven himself smiled.

"You know. I think we can."


~~~~~~


Morning. Everyone was gathered up at the Sky Arena in little to no time at all. Spinel did her job pretty well, and standing alongside her friends, she and her friends were waiting for the others to come in. They saw their respected guests to the Sky Arena stroll in from the frontal gate. Sure there was a lot of others that were coming in to check this out, but their main targets of interest were spotted coming in though each of them had an escort: Amethyst with Hessonite beside her, Pearl coming in and announcing Connie's presence (this included trumpets and red carpet even), and Peridot was ... carried in by Star Quartz. Like a handbag.

"Quite the turnout," remarked Steven, seeing a bit more Gems and Ponies than he expected, but mostly the townsfolk.

"When Spinel says she'll get a crowd, Spinel's gettin a crowd," Spinel said, hands behind her back and smiling happy. They all looked and watched them all take their seats around the Sky Arena for this session. They've had a few set up before, though the Sky Arena had to be altered a little bit in order to accommodate this class. Some pillars were moved, and some rubble from training had to be cleaned up good and quick so the blankets could be spread out flat and evenly.
They saw everyone else settle down on their respected blankets, setting it up as if it were just any other session, getting the blankets laid out and everything. Hopefully this can work better for everyone.

"Spinel, why don't you have a seat?" Steven offered.

"You wanna lead this class by yourself, Steven?" Spinel asked. Steven looked back to the others waiting for him, and eventually made his conclusion with a nod.

"I can do it. Just sit back and enjoy the lesson," Steven reassured. Spinel was still telling herself that she didn't need something like this, but if Steven said he can do this by himself, than he can do this by himself. Spinel was even given her own complimentary class blanket by Garnet, which hers was a pink blanket with stars on it. Spinel took a moment to let her eyes sparkle seeing her blanket before she walked over to find a spot right next to Connie, right near the front of the crowd.

Steven and Garnet looked to one another.

"Go get em, champ."

"Thanks Garnet. But can you do me a favor and set things up before we get started? I don't want everyone getting confused before we begin," Steven asked. Garnet smiled. Most of her future visions said he wouldn't ask that ... but it was still a nice gesture.

"Sure thing. Wait right here," Garnet said. Steven nodded and stood ready, as Garnet walked out in front of the crowd. She too had her own blanket to use, and it was already set up by helpful Starlight.

"Good morning everyone. Glad you all could make it," Garnet began, "Now before we begin anything ... I am not. But he is. Everyone? Steven Universe."

A bit blunt there, but hey an intro's an intro. Steven took it and walked out in front of the crowd, finding a bit of a mixture set up here: Gems, Ponies, Humans too. Steven kept a smile on his face.

"Hey, morning," Steven said. "I'm glad everybody can make it today. I'm a little new to this, but I also think this can help a lot of people out. Also feel free to correct me if I make any mistakes -"

Straight away one Gem actually raised her hand. "Yes?"

"Where's your blanket?" she asked.

Well that was quick. Steven rubbed the back of his head to try and think of an answer, but lucky for him, Garnet already had a spare blanket for him, which turned out to be that of a Cookie Cat blanket. No rules specify what kind it was, as long as it was comfortable to the person.

"Right here," Steven said, getting the blanket all set up on the ground. After that, Steven cleared his throat.

"Okay, it's great to be here today. I've been told by someone I know that a lot of you had been having problems. Something going on that you might not exactly be proud of, or just something that's just worrying you, or maybe it's both or something else," Steven explained. He didn't mention any names, but the people knew who they were and that was the important part. They already heard some of the main ones already, and they could easily point them out of the crowd.

"A wise person explained to me how in order to find balance, you must first understand your feelings, and to do that ..." Steven brought over the portable radio, placing it beside him, "you need to see them clearly without running away from them."

Steven pulled out his "Secret weapon" for this session, which turned into a CD for the radio. A simple push in, and soon music was starting to play. Well, not "music" music, but more ambiance of what sounded like soft rain in the middle of a forest. A typical choice for any yoga class or to relax in general, even if much of the place was a little bit cold.

"Have a seat. And close your eyes," Steven instructed. They all were already seated so all many of them simply had to do was close their eyes. Steven watched them all follow his instructions, and soon they all had their eyes shut and patiently waiting for what Steven had to say next.

.......

"Here, in darkness, everything's okay ... listen to the rain. ... Here Comes a Thought. ..."

So it begins. Even if they closed their eyes for much of it, some of them did start to open their eyes, starting off with Spinel. She wasn't sure what was going on, but suddenly, she didn't find herself in the Sky Arena. In fact, she didn't have a clue where she was. She didn't see Twilight, Connie, or ... well, anybody. At least not at first. After a few moments before Spinel could freak out, she did start seeing a few more people specifically, and they started to see eachother.

Pearl, Amethyst, Peridot, and Twilight in particular. Also in particular, they all had a glowing color hue around them: Pearl a light blue, Amethyst a lavender, Twilight a purple, Peridot a green, and Spinel a dark pink.

None of them spoke, only looking around confused. They were not in a Sky Arena, or anywhere familiar for that matter. But instead, they all found themselves in some sort of small forest. No snow, but appearing like early spring still, pine trees standing around them catching and gently dropping off small droplets of the "rain". It was nothing too harsh, nothing too hectic, but just a fine small drizzle, making a cooling little bit of fog around them too. It felt comforting somehow, like a time in a sauna but cool instead of hot.

Steven was sitting across from them all, already sitting in meditation (taught by Garnet). His hue was glowing a bright light pink. Seeing Steven glowing link like that already was giving Spinel some rather rough thoughts, but she tried to keep them from getting to her ...


Then they saw something. A small. Glowing. White Butterfly. Where'd that come from?

Steven; Take a moment to think of just ...
Flexibility, love and trust ...
Take a moment to think of just ...
Flexibility, love and trust ...

As Steven was singing, a few more of these butterflies started to appear around them, fluttering along gently through the air, unaffected by the rain. They weren't sure what the butterflies were about, but none of them were really scared of these people. In fact, some of them gently landed on them, the first one landing in Steven's hands. Spinel felt one land on her head, which she quick shook away.
As some of the butterflies started to flutter along through the forest, a group of them began to circle around above them, but as they were flying, they all were starting to see some images. Steven could already feel a little bit uneasy when it began showing some of his more ... troubling moments.

Here comes a thought
That might alarm you.
What someone said
and how it harmed you ...

The first main memory shown to them all through these butterflies shown a "younger" Steven in presence of a gigantic figure. A towering figure of bright white that, shown in the butterfly images, was far too tall to even compare to anything else. She had a few other figures around her, but their colors couldn't make out who they were exactly, at least not as well as some would expect. Twilight and Spinel were left a bit in the dark, though Pearl and Peridot began to feel uneasy. Why were they feeling troubled over something they don't know about?

Something you did
that failed to be charming
Things that you said
are suddenly swarming ...

Now to a more recent event. The butterflies were showing Steven the moment that for him was the moment that he felt the most shameful. The battle on Homeworld, as Stevonnie, against Grogar. It was a moment he kept trying to not bring up over again, but these butterflies were showing the pain Stevonnie felt the moment she saw what she had done, how it split her apart in both Connie and Steven, and how much it hurt them both. Unlike the real life events though, the gemstones that fell to the ground instead burst open into even more butterflies, along with Grogar's body, turning into a massive butterfly swarm that consumed the entire view.

The swarm of butterflies circled all of them in a spiral that seemed to reach out to the sky. It looked so overwhelming ... But one still found its way towards Steven. This swarm began showing each of those involved something. ... Something important to each of them.
The first one to be shown was Peridot, the butterflies seemingly showing her a form of flower - the same metallic one that came from tar Quartz and the Prime Kindergarten. It didn't matter before, but now without her Limb Enhancers holding her up high it felt different. She was seeing herself nearby. Scared. and Tired.

Oh
You're losing sight ...
You're losing touch ...
All these little things seem to matter so much ...

Peridot saw herself huddled up as the butterfly swarm was circling around her, feeling so weak and fragile even to these small creatures, swatting away any that got close to her in a feeble attempt to keep them away. Without her limb enhancers, how could she hold herself to anything? The question her current self, and her past self, was constantly asking herself. As Peridot watched, she saw someone else come over to her, and help her back up on her feet.

A Ruby. A Ruby who helped her get so far to where she would be today. As the Peridot stood up with her, Peridot saw that same metal flower now on her face.

That they confuse you ...
That I might lose you ...

The swarm began to lift, and both figures disappeared from view as a group of them went by. Peridot's vision was done, but now it was Amethyst's turn. At least it seemed to be when Amethyst began seeing herself off in the distance, in a bit of a crowd of butterflies as if they were a crowd of people. This Amethyst was smaller, more primitive, and the one that came out of the Prime Kindergarten again in her original state. Similar to Peridot, Amethyst saw herself looking confused, but more in trying to act like everybody else. But the figures were so distorted by the butterflies she just couldn't seem to make it work, and all she did was cover her head.

Take a moment. Remind yourself to
take a moment and find yourself.
Take a moment to ask yourself if
this is how we fall apart.

This other Amethyst looked so scared and freaked out, like how she used to be, as a few Butterflies started flying around her, one of which landed on her shoulder. All of the butterflies looked the same overall, but the one that landed on her had a few special features on it. The difference was small, only what looked like a star on its body, but it made it sparkle and shine a little bit. Suddenly she no longer looked so overwhelmed, only having the special butterfly to look to.

But it's not, but it's not, but it's not, but it's not, but it's not.
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

The special butterfly took flight, both Amethysts watching it fly through the crowd of butterflies. Although so many were there, this special one stood out throughout the entire flight. All those people started flying away into the spiral above, and came back only as one figure. An Amethyst made of butterflies. The scared Amethyst marveled at this other butterfly. Even if she was different from everyone else around her.

Watching this happen, something was starting to click a the butterflies flew over view of the once scared Amethyst.

You got nothing, got nothing, got nothing, got nothing to fear ...
I'm here.

There was a break in the flying butterflies, first showing the captain Amethyst: the one their Amethyst looked like when coming in with Pink Diamond. ...

I'm here.

Second showed the Amethyst that the Mane Six first ever met, her more tomboy-ish modern outfit ...

I'm here.

And finally came the new Amethyst, smiling, with her newest form, and her Cutie Mark. This all looked nice, but seeing Peridot and Amethyst go through theirs, there was another voice that ... couldn't keep it in anymore.

Twilight; Here comes a thought
That might alarm me.
What someone said
and how it harmed me ...

The first time in days she can finally sing, even if it was just in her head. Steven wasn't expecting anyone else to sing, him and a few others looking over to Twilight as she looked on in weakened dismay. Just seeing that troubled face made it clear that the stress was tolling away so much at her. The butterflies themselves started to show much of it, flying around her in such a way that mirrored that of a written list flying through the air in waves, encircling and almost constricting.
Twilight saw herself struggle to keep up with the order as best she could manage, but it seemed whenever she got one thing done there was a ton more waiting for her.

But that was not all these butterflies dared to show for her. 

Something I did
that failed to be charming

A figure began to take shape out of the sea of butterflies above her, showing Twilight the moment that changed everything for Equestria, and to herself. Flying in the sky, the butterflies took the shape of the Alicorn of the sun herself, flying as best she could just above this other Twilight. The thing she did was more something she didn't do, this other Twilight unable to reach Celestia before the alicorn fell from the sky and disappeared.

The butterflies seemed to disappear, but this other Twilight's horn began to glow as the weight of it all was pushed down on her.

Things that I said
are suddenly swarming

Suddenly, as it had before numerous times, the horn blasted into the air out of her control. Instead of launching some random magic spell however, her horn released a huge wave of butterflies, circling and spiraling out like a tornado off her horn. Unlike the other two before her that seemed to find some form of closure, this Twilight apparently hadn't found her's yet.
Pearl's vision wasn't that far behind Twilight's, and for Pearl her's was a bit more simplified, but offered the most to see for this Pearl. Pearl first saw herself just standing there at attention as she had been doing for Connie, but the swarm showed someone else she was standing alongside ... someone more regal. ... Someone more Diamond-esque.

Oh
I'm losing sight
I'm losing touch

The diamond-shape figure changed into a more "recent" shape, to that of a Rose Quartz. The Pearl looked different, but still stood the same way, albeit with a bit more of a smile ... until this Quartz started to fade away. The Pearl tried to reach, but all that happened was that it "popped" into a butterfly flock again, disappearing from her.

The Pearl was on her own, and in her current form but ... more confident. Happier even.

All these little things seem to matter so much
That they confuse me ...

Steven+Twilight; That I might lose me.

All of them looked up to the entire swarm of Butterflies, these visions and experiences, and time to get their thoughts and feelings into shape giving them all a little bit more clarity. The swarm was no longer a swarm. It was a display of emotion flying through the air, all together.

Take a moment. Remind yourself to
take a moment and find yourself.
Take a moment to ask yourself if
this is how we fall apart.

This swarm, which just moments ago was confusing and somewhat worrying, now was something they all wanted to watch fly by them, as they began to relax. In fact, they actually laid down and watched the entire butterfly flock go over them as if they were just watching the clouds go by.

Steven+Twilight; But it's not, but it's not, but it's not, but it's not, but it's not.
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay
You've got nothing, got nothing, got nothing, got nothing to fear
I'm here, I'm here, I'm here

Then their own butterflies finally flew off to join them. The group released their respected butterflies up into the air, and watched them join the clouds of butterflies fluttering into the air. ... All but one.

Steven+Twilight; And it was just a thought, just a thought, just a thought, just a thought, just a thought.
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
We can watch, we can watch, we can watch, we can watch them go by
From here, from here, from here ...

The only one with a single butterfly left now was Spinel. A small little butterfly still resting on her finger, still resting as everyone elses flown away. Spinel was quiet, looking down at this butterfly she'd been seeing this whole time.

Spinel; Take a moment to think of just ...
Flexibility, love and trust ...
Take a moment to think of just ...
Flexibility, love and trust ...


.......

Just like that, it was all over. Everyone at the meditation class were feeling happy, even of most of them were tearing up from the experience. These were tears of joy though, nothing sad here anymore. Steven opened his eyes, who were also watery, to face the entire class again. Just in time too, as the tape had just finished playing it's ambiance.

"Oh Steven ... that was amazing," said teary-eyed Topaz, rubbing some tears away.

"I can't wait for next week's class," said a slightly emotional Thorax.

Steven got up himself, smiling from the experience in spite of what it shown. He felt lighter somehow. And in such thoughts, he wasn't alone. As the class was starting to get their blankets and head on back home for the week, all looking forward to what the next class would bring, there were a few that had to stop and wait. Standing there and looking to Steven.

Pearl. Amethyst. Peridot.

"....... Steven?" muttered Pearl.

Just looking to them one time told them exactly what this class had done. Amethyst and Peridot's Cutie Marks were there all over again, and Pearl's new outfit alone were proof enough. Steven waited long enough for this moment.

"Welcome back guys. I know what you're -" (Sees the three Gems in mid air, lunging at him) "... Oh."

*BAM!* Down went Steven, laying on the ground as the three Gems were crying their eyes out.

"YOU'RE BACK YOU CRAZY CLOD!" exclaimed Peridot, "I was worried sick about you, DON'T RUN AWAY EVER AGAIN!"

"I missed you so much, man!" exclaimed Amethyst, "I should've been there for ya, I'M SO SORRY. I'm so glad you're back!"

"Oh Steven, you're finally safe and sound!" exclaimed Pearl, "Thank the stars!!"

"I missed you guys too - easy easy!" Steven said from underneath the three. Overwhelming? Obviously. But it was a good kind of overwhelming. As Steven was handling them, the others were looking on with a bit of relief and fulfillment.

"Finally," sighed Connie. It took a long while, but they finally got everyone back up to speed. ALL of the original Crystal Gems were back together at last. This was all fine and good, but there was only one Gem out of the entire group that wasn't smiling. She was thinking, looking down at her feet.

"Spinel," Garnet said, placing a hand on Spinel's shoulder. Spinel looked up to Garnet for a little bit before she turned away.

"I uh ... got a bit of thinking to do ..." Spinel simply said, before walking away.


~~~~~~


So a few hours had gone by, and the Sky Arena had become much less active since the meditation class. Not a single sign that any Gem, Pony, or otherwise had been there today. The only thing left there now, aside from the ruins of it all, was Spinel. She had never actually left the meditation class, or the Sky Arena. She simply sat over by the edge of the arena to look out to the sunset, sky and clouds going by the place, with nothing but her own blanket to snuggle up to and keep her warm, lost in her own thoughts on what to really do. She saw so many other people going through their own feelings, and here she was looking at clouds and keeping her mouth shut.

It was only a matter of time before someone did come over to her. And it wasn't Garnet.

"Hey, Spinel. Is everything okay?"

Steven Universe. Spinel looked over to him, seeing him not only in winter clothes but with a blanket of his own to keep him warm.

"Oh. Hey, Steven. Come to check on me?" Spinel asked.

"Well ... yeah. Garnet told me you weren't feeling so good. What's the matter?" Steven asked, having a seat right next to her. Spinel clammed up, curling up in her blanket again.

"It's uh ... it's nothing. Or, it's something but ... something not too big to worry about," Spinel managed to say. Steven tried to figure out what the problem might be. He could tell that Spinel wanted to say something, but just couldn't bring herself to say it to him. He had one idea, and decided to try his luck.

"Spinel, if you're worried about Amethyst, Peridot, and Pearl, I'm sure they'll like you. We'll just go talk to them whenever you're ready, okay?" Steven said with a reassuring smile. Spinel ... just decided to roll with it.

"Thanks, bro ..."

Steven and Spinel just stayed quiet and they both looked on towards the clouds ahead of them. With the Sky Arena bring so high up, that meant the best view of the clouds they could get, seeing plenty of them below them, alongside, and above them with the soft hue of the setting sun. Spinel pretended that she was feeling better, kicking her feet lazily as she sat at the edge with a kinda "forced" smile. As she was doing this though, Steven was actually keeping an eye on her for a bit. Let's just say she wasn't the only one holding something back ...

"What'chu thinkin about, Steven?" Spinel finally asked, thinking it was about the other Gems again and how they'll react to her. Now it was Steven's turn to clam up. How was he supposed to approach this subject exactly? ... He was to ease it in.

"... Whenever the other Gems. Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, Pearl, Amethyst ... after getting their memories, they all keep changing their forms until they reach their recent ones. And ... well when you got your memories back, you did too ....... Spinel. How'd did you -"

"Get destroyed? wrecked? Poofed? ... I like poofed. It sounds less horrible that way," Spinel said. Steven could see that despite her smile, Spinel looked hurt, so maybe now wasn't the best time for it.

"Spinel wait, if you don't want to talk about it -"

"You want to know what happened?" Spinel cut in.

... Steven nodded.

Spinel began to cry.

"....... After White told me about Pink, I ... I felt so sad. Broken. Betrayed. It's bad enough she left me and all, but knowing she was ... gone gone? ... I ....... I ..."
Spinel could hardly even say it.

"... I tried to shatter myself, Steven. ..."

The whole world felt like it stopped.

"S-Spinel? ..."

"I was made to be her best friend ... and I thought, what's the point anymore if my best friend isn't there with me? Ever again? ... But I didn't do it right. All I did was poof myself. The whole time, I kept thinking "How could she do this to me"? ... How could she leave her best friend behind? ... And in the end, all this revenge talk just mad me into ... this. A villain. A monster. A unlovable good-for-nothing. ......."
Spinel's hand moved over to those streaks on her face. After hearing all of this, Steven started to see those marks for what they really were. Those three streaks weren't mascara tears ... those were claw marks. Self-inflicted claw marks.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I ... I don't know. I guess I just didn't want to dump another problem on you. You already got a LOT of problems: White Diamond, Twilight, your girlfriend. You wouldn't want to hear this ..."

Suddenly, Spinel found Steven hugging her. Spinel was quiet but she returned the gesture.

"Spinel, don't say that, of course I do. I don't care if the whole world is on my shoulders, I always want you to share your feelings with me. Don't ever think you're not good enough for anything, you mean so much more than that," Steven said, feeling some tears start to come through his eyes too.

"... Heh. You almost sound like you did this before, Mr. Universe," Spinel meekly joked, tears flowing out much more now, almost as if Blue Diamond's aura made her cry. Steven could feel a sting in his own heart when she said that, the whole Grogar affair replaying in his mind again.

"I guess you can say that. We're your family, don't forget that," Steven sighed.

Spinel waited as this scene replayed in her head. Grogar made it sound so dangerous. So sad if she were to share something like this. But now that it all happened, Spinel could begin calming down. She felt ... lighter. The Gem gripped Steven a little bit as she hugged him.

"Thanks, Steven. ... For giving me another chance."

...
Sitting on the end of her ponytail, her butterfly just stood there, small fluttering of its wings. A small brush of wind was all it took for this white butterfly to flutter off away.

Spinel's butterfly was free to fly away.